ABSTRACT
This chapter examines wartime life among the civilian population in Slovene towns and rural settlements and their daily battle to obtain enough food to survive. By far the most pressing problem in Slovene towns was the shortage of basic necessities: food, clothes, fuel, and hygiene supplies. Despite the introduction of food ration cards, the supply of goods was still disrupted, which resulted in a shortage of food. Since wartime brought a critical shortage of food for the civilian population both in towns and in rural Slovenia, this led to increasing hunger and vulnerability to disease, particularly in the second half of the war. The amount of rationed food decreased from year to year, and the irregular food supply made it uncertain whether one could obtain any at all. The shortage of food during the war forced Slovene homemakers to use foods that prior to the war had seldom, or indeed never, been consumed.
