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

Monday, April 29, 1918

"By late April, the men were starving. Bread and polenta were very scarce, and often mixed with sawdust or even sand. Meat practically disappeared. Soldiers stole the prime cuts from horses killed by enemy fire, and orders went out for carcasses to be delivered directly to the slaughterhouse. Triska's battery horses were dying; only six of 36 were healthy. Even the coffee made of chicory was in short supply. 'Salt was only a memory.' The men were often given money instead of food, but there was nothing to spend it on."

Quotation Context

Excerpt from Mark Thompson's The White War writing of food shortages facing the Austro-Hungarian army in 1918. The army had half the flour it needed, and could strip no more provisions from the territory it had conquered in the Battle of Caporetto. Jan Triska was a Czech non-commissioned officer in the 13th Artillery Regiment. Horses would have drawn his guns.

Source

The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front, 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson, page 343, copyright © 2008 Mark Thompson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2009

Tags

1918-04-29, 1918, April, food shortage, food, ration ticket