‘I didn't realize that food holds such an important place in our lives’: the roles of food writing in Holocaust ego-documents
Abstract
This article examines food in Holocaust-era diaries and letters to illuminate Jewish daily life under Nazi persecution in Germany and the Netherlands. While Holocaust scholarship often emphasizes food scarcity, this study explores how food-related practices helped Jews maintain social bonds, create routines, and navigate relationships with family, friends, and concealers. By analyzing how writers documented both physical realities of scarcity and food's symbolic roles, this article reveals how food served as a marker of identity and a framework for processing emotions. The analysis demonstrates how seemingly mundane details in ego-documents offer profound insights into personal and collective Holocaust experiences.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies
European history and politics
Autobiographical and Biographical Writing
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Holocaust Studies
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 577–600
- Publication date
- 3 February 2026
- Language
- EN