Collage: beneath a ration ticket for bread for the week of March 25 to 31, 1918 is a 1915 five-Korona coin with two angels suspending a crown. On either side of the coin is written in Hungarian
A tejjel-mézzel folyó — kánaán — ból 1918 egy kenyér-czédula ára = öt korona
From Canann, the river of milk and honey, to rationing: in 1918 Czédula Bread cost her a crown. (Speculation: Kenyér-Czédula was a bakery. A web search shows at auction a menu for Étel Czédula, Czédula Food.)
The ration ticket reads:
kenyér — vagy kenyérliszt-utalvány
kg. 1.70 súlyú kenyérre vagy kg. 1.20 kenyér lisztre.
Érvényes csak 1918 évi március hó 25-31 — ig
terjed? negyedik hétre.
kenyér — vagy kenyérliszt-utalvány xxx való visszaélés kihágas!
képez és rendörhatóságilag szigorúan büntettetik
8
Bread- or bread-flour-voucher
1.70 kg. of bread or 1.20 kg. of bread-flour
Valid only in the year 1918, March 25 to 31 for up to four weeks.
Bread- or bread-flour-voucher [. . .] abuse is an offense!
and shall be severely punished by the police.
The card is hand-made on watercolor paper by Schima Martos. Dated September 12, 1918.

Hungarian. A tejjel-mézzel folyó — kánaán — ból 1918 egy kenyér-czédula ára = öt korona

From Canaan, the river of milk and honey, Canann, to rationing: in 1918 Czédula Bread cost her a crown. (Speculation: Kenyér-Czédula was a bakery. A web search shows at auction a menu for Étel Czédula, Czédula Food.]

The ration ticket bears a large 8 and an overprinted V, and reads:

kenyér — vagy kenyérliszt-utalvány

kg. 1.70 súlyú kenyérre vagy kg. 1.20 kenyér lisztre.

Érvényes csak 1918 évi március hó 25-31 — ig

terjed? negyedik hétre.

kenyér — vagy kenyérliszt-utalvány xxx való visszaélés kihágas!

képez és rendörhatóságilag szigorúan büntettetik

8

Bread- or bread-flour-voucher

1.70 kg. of bread or 1.20 kg. of bread-flour

Valid only in the year 1918, March 25 to 31 months — for up to four weeks.

Bread- or bread-flour-voucher [. . .] abuse is an offense!

and shall be severely punished by the police.

Reverse: Dated September 12, 1918.

Other views: Larger, Back, LargerBack

Tuesday, March 28, 1916

"One of them told us of something approaching a riot in Bremen where large crowds of women smashed shop-windows and stormed the shops. Mortensen from Skibelund met a man from Hamburg who left Hamburg four days before his leave was up because his wife no longer had any food to give him.

. . .

I've hardly heard the sound of gunfire in the week I've been back here. All the forces are gathering down at Verdun. There is talk here that a fort has fallen, but there are so many rumours flying around. What's the situation with Romania? Everything seems calm to me, but it is no doubt the calm before the storm."

Quotation Context

Kresten Andresen was a Danish soldier fighting in the German army. 'Mortensen from Skibelund' would have been another Dane from a neighborhood in Vejen in southern Denmark. German troops had captured Fort Douaumont on February 25, 1916, four days after the beginning of the siege of Verdun. The village of Vaux, site of another primary fort, changed hands thirteen times during March, 1916, but the Fort itself held out until June. Like Denmark, Romania was neutral. It was actively courted by both the Entente Allies and the Central Powers.

Source

The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, pp. 242, 243, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012

Tags

1916-03-28, 1916, March, riot, food riot, bread riot, Bremen, Hamburg, Romania, Verdun