Bitter sugar

“What else do I remember about these eating events? … the sugar factory was bombarded, and my father dug up caramel, burnt sugar from the site. I remember this wonderful taste, everyone got a bit of something like that and we kissed it, it was treated as something special, some delicacy.”

From the memories of Andrzej Kalicki. Vilnius. World War II

One of the classic hostilities is the “scorched earth tactic”: destroying warehouses, food processing plants and water reservoirs on the enemy’s territory. Poles who survived World War II often recall the taste of a specific sweet – bitter sugar. In the ruins of bombed sugar factories or warehouses with food products, you could find burnt sugar, which had a bitter taste. It was found in various forms: as large black lumps, to collect which people used pickaxes, as dust mixed with ashes and earth, or as lumps of burnt caramel. Bitter sugar was often the only food for people living nearby for a long time.