Word: antwerp
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When World War II broke, U. S.-born Lars Moën (pronounced Mo-en), was doing color-film research in Antwerp. He stayed until October 1940, got an Antwerp's-eye view of invasion and occupation. His book is the first window through which daily life in conquered Europe can be clearly glimpsed...
...odds the most intense concern of plain folk is food: "The verb 'to eat' is conjugated in every possible way whenever two people meet." By 3 on the afternoon of the day Antwerp fell, huge trucks were hauling the city's two-to-four-year stores back to Germany...
Salt is very scarce. Beer is still abundant, but weak. Cheese and tobacco scarcely exist. There are no chemical fertilizers for next summer's crops. Moën lost 25 Ib. during his six months in occupied Antwerp...
...Antwerp is Flemish, and many Flemings have long been more or less pro-German. Despite this, and despite the Nazis' thorough policy of "friendliness" toward civilians, as food thinned out, sentiment turned more & more sharply against Germany. But it was by no means pro-British. The general civilian conviction-and wish-seemed to be that both sides would lose...
...invasion of England was repeatedly postponed and hopes of a quick peace faded, the soldiers got quieter and quieter. Homesick talk vastly increased, photographs of families were more in evidence. R. A. F. raids on Antwerp and over Germany sandpapered the soldiers' nerves. Against strict orders, they got drunk oftener. By September, soldiers were forbidden to carry sidearms. More & more of them listened to the London broadcasts (penalty, two years in a concentration camp). Such symptoms might never focus in revolt; but it was safe to say that German morale could never regain its high pitch of summer...