Cold War Austria: Immediate Post-War Economic Sitution--American Food Aid

Figure 1.--The image here shows blind Austrian children inspecting a CARE package. We do not have detils, but it looks like it may be an orphanage. The packages came from ordinary Americans concerned about the hungary people of war torn Europe.

Unlike the countries occupied by the NAZIs, the Allies did not adopt policies to starve people. Rather they provided food to prevent starvation. The food situation in both Germany and Austria as well as the liberated countries was only managed by massive American food assistance. Not all of the food came from America, but a very large proportion of the food did. This was the case during and after World War I, and continued to be the case in World War II. The programs involved were different, but the source was the same--primarily the United States. There were several programs to feed Europe. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), primarily funded by the United States also provided food shipments. It was created to aid the victimes of Axis aggression, but after the War assisted Austria as well which was designated as a victim. When this ended, other American efforts kicked in. The U.S. government began shipments of $300 million in food aid. Austria was part of the U.S. Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) program. This was a program specifically designed to feed people in the firmer Axis countruies Germany/Austria and Japan. Italy was treated as more like a victim of the Axis. In addition to Government aid, there was the private CARE Program (1945-46). Individual Anericans contributed money to finance food packages to starving Europe. During the food crisis, the United States financed some 88 percent of Austrian food imports (1945-47) and 57 percent (1948). This was all before the American Marshall Plan. American aid and subsidies helped Austrians to get through the terrible hunger of 1947. It also is aood example of the double-edged sword of food relief. Providing large quantities of free or low-priced food lowers overall farm prices. This in turn impacted the incentive that high prices had on farmers to increase out out and delayed the recovery of Austrian agriculture. [Lewis, p. 143.] This would be the unitended dynamic that would affect American food aid progrms in the post-War era.

American Role

Unlike the countries occupied by the NAZIs, the Allies did not adopt policies to starve people. Rather they provided food to prevent starvation. The food situation in both Germany and Austria as well as the liberated countries was only managed by massive American food assistance. Not all of the food and financing came from America, but a very large proportion did.

World War I

Austria was a new republic formed out of the German-speaking western area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the World War I Central Powers. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had been a major European power for centuries, but it was a laregly agricultural power and failed to industrialize like Germany to the north. Most of the indutry was in the Czech lands of Bohemia. Austria itself was primarily agricultural with craft manufacturing. While agricultural, Austrian farms were not particulaly efficent. Thus Vienna and other cities imported food from the grain producing eastern ares of the Empire. Unlike Germany, the Empire as a whole was self sufficent in food production and exported food to Germany. The Empire was one of the Central Powers and Germany supported it's desire to punish the Serbs for the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (June 1914). The result was World War I. Like Germny, Austria mobilized expecting a short war. And like Germany, Austria- Hungary failed to adopt polices to maintain its agricultural production. Harvests fell dramatically due to the War or better stated Austrian mimanagement of the war effort. The shrinking food supply combined with the unequal distribution at the Imperial, provincial, regional and local levels generated inreasing discontent. The population faced daily struggles for food resulting in the fragmentation of the Imperial structure. The food distribution system broke down in Russia and the Ottoman Empires first, but the same eventually occured in Austria-Hungary as well. By the end of the War, people throughout the Empire were hungary, some starving. And the sitution was the worst in Austria. It was no longer the center of a great Empire. Vienna was a great European city in the middle of a now tiny, isolated republic. Before the War, Vienna relied on the grain producing areas in the eastern part of the Empire. The war upset this relationship. One author reports that the quota alloctions in Austria was about 30 percent below that of the Hungarian quotas. [Schulze, pp. 94-96.] Food shortages in addition to the terrible War casualties were the major reason for the collapse of the Empire. The Austro-Hungarian armies were battered by the Russians, but with with German support were not defeated in the field. Instead the Empire desintegrted with the major ethnic groups forming or joining national states (Czechoslovkia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia). Austria was the smallest of these national states with ethnic cores and sufferd economic dislocations. Austria was now cut off economically from the larger part of its former empire. And in the aftermath of the War there were serious food shortages in the cities. People on farms had food, if not much money. But people in the cities, especially Vienna, began to starve. A surprising rescurer appeared, Austria's former enemy--the United States. The Amerikanisch Kinder Hilfs Aktion began distributing food in Vienna and other cities. [Reischl]

World War II

America feeding Europe and preventing starvation was the case during and after World War I, and continued to be the case in World War II. The programs involved were different, but the source was the same--primrily the United States. There were several programs to feed Europe which helped feed refigees and other civilians. There were a combination of Governent, international, and private organizations.

CARE

In addition to Government aid, there was the private CARE Program (1945-46). Individual Anericans contributed money to finance food packages to starving Europe. CARE send more than 1 million CARE Packages to Austrian families in the post-War emrgency. CARE packages also went to unstitutions caring for children. The image here shows blind Austrian children inspecting a CARE package. We do not have detils, but it looks like it may be an orphanage. The packages came from ordinary Ameriucans concerned about the oeople of war torn Europe. They were packages put together by infivuifuals abnd groups in America. Thus the contentens varies. They were food items purchaddsed in stores, often oprimsrily canned food. We note a posting about an Austrian boy who remebers the packges, as a boy in a very hungary Austria after the War. "Thomas Boedy has hung onto a small black and white photograph for the past 70 years. The photo, of six women he never meet, reminds him that the kindness of strangers can make a big difference in the hardest of times. All Thomas ever knew about the ladies in the photograph is that they were Americans from Merrill, Wisconsin, specifically who sent care packages to the people of war-torn Europe immediately following World War II. As a young boy growing up in Austria, Thomas and his family received a few of the packages sent from Merrill. The photograph came with a care package sent in 1949 by a Mrs. Boettcher. She had written her name and those of the other ladies responsible for sending the packages on the back of the photo, including her sister, Mrs. Art Schroeder, along with Mrs. Weber, Mrs. Roman Saeger, Mrs. Lenz and Mrs. Zich. In the bleakness of post-war Austria, these ladies from Merrill brought a ray of sunshine for which Thomas remains grateful 70 years later. "Everybody was deprived and hungry," he remembers. "These were truly gifts from heaven." In a country where food was scarce and heavily rationed, the edible contents of the care packages were greatly relished. A box of gelatin which came with one of the care packages, Thomas remembers, was the best gelatin he ever ate in his life. "Just a package of jello was so wonderful," he said. Thomas and his family lived in Guraz, Austria, for four years. His father, who could speak English, worked as a supply manager for the British Army that occupied Austria following the war. "There were people there from all different countries," Thomas remembers. "Some had relatives in the United States. My dad would translate messages for them." The Boedy family would later move to the United States, settling in Omaha, Nebraska. Now a semi-retired Jesuit Priest living in Milwaukee, Thomas recently came across the photo of the ladies from Merrill while going through a file of family memorabilia. Seventy years and 7,000 miles from his childhood, Thomas came to Merrill this week on a mission of gratitude. "I want to thank the kind people who thought of us in that time after World War II," Thomas said. "I am so grateful that they were willing to share those care packages with us. They were a light in the darkness." [Lueck]

Red Cross

The American Red Cross (ARC) did not play such an imprtant role in assisting refugees abd civilians as it had durung Worlds War I. It was in World War II primarily focused on aiding the troops. Mrs. Roosevelt was a representative of the ARC when she visited the troops in the South Pacific (1943). Other agencies were created to specifically aid refugees and other civilians, especially UNRRA. The ARC did, however, support efforts to aid civilains. This was mostly done indirectly. The ARC supported the International Committe for the Red Cross (ICRC). It was the latrgest single contributor to the ICRC which played a vital role in dealing with Prisoner of War (POW) issues. The ARC also assisted other national chambers. This was somewhat complicated by bthe fact that the Gernan Red Cross was thoriugly Nazified. The Germans did allow of the nationla chambers of occupied countries to operate. With meager resourcces they did a great deal of good work. While it was primarily working on the POW problem, it did play a major role in ending the Greek famine. As the War began to go against the Germans, available resources became less and less available. As the liberation of occupied countries began (mostly 1944), supplies from the Allies became available. at first only in the West. After the German surrender, some moistly American supplies began to reach Eastern Europe. This included both countries in Western and Eastern Europe. As the Soviet Union began to establish Communist police states in Eastern Europe, these efforts were discontinued. But they did occur for some time after the War. Austria was a special case because like Germany, it was divided between the Soviets and Western Allies. There was also a dispute over the ICRC and the League of Red Cross Sociries which the Cimmunists favored. The ARC and other natiuonal chapters as well as the ICRC were existing instititions even before the War. As a result there was cooperatioin with UNRAA. We notuice uniformed ARC staffers at UNRRA Dispalced Persons Camps after the War.

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA)

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), primarily funded by the United States also provided food shipments. It was created to aid the victimes of Axis aggression, but after the War assisted Austria as well which was designated as a victim. When this ended, other American efforts kicked in.

U.S. Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA)

The U.S. government began shipments of $300 million in food aid. Austria was part of the U.S. Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) program. This was a program specifically designed to feed people in the firmer Axis countruies Germany/Austria and Japan. Italy was treated as more like a victim of the Axis. During the food crisis, the United States financed some 88 percent of Austrian food imports (1945-47) and 57 percent (1948). This was all before the American Marshall Plan. American aid and subsidies helped Austrians to get through the terrible hunger of 1947.

Economic Impact

American food aid is a good example of the double-edged sword of food relief. Providing large quantities of free or low-priced food lowers overall farm prices. This in turn impacted the incentive that high prices had on farmers to increase out out and delayed the recovery of Austrian agriculture. [Lewis, p. 143.] This would be the unitended dynamic that would affect American food aid progrms in the post-War era.

Sources

Lewis, Jill." Dancing on a tight rope: The beginning of the Marshall Plan," in Bischof, G�nter et al. The Marshall Plan in Austria (Transaction Publishers: 2000), pp. 138�155.

Lueck, Colin. "Post-war packages from Merrill meant much to Austrian boy," Merrill Foto News (October 28, 2018).

Reischl, Friedrich. Wiens Kinder Und Amerika Die Amerikanische Kinder Hilfsaktion 1919 (1920).

Schulze, Max Stephan. "Austria-Hungary�s economy in World War I," in Stephen N. Broadberry and Mark Harrison, eds. The Economics of World War I (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge/New York, 2005).

Created: 1:12 PM 12/8/2018
Last updated: 1:12 PM 12/8/2018