Grass

During World War II, particularly in concentration camps and ghettos, extreme hunger forced many prisoners and Holocaust victims to resort to desperate actions, including consuming grass and other inedible plants to survive. Deprived of access to any food, people resorted to eating grass, roots, leaves, and weeds found around the camps and ghettos.

Ingredients:

• Fresh grass (gathered from nearby areas, often secretly collected to avoid guards)
• Water (if available)
• Sometimes small amounts of salt or leftover vegetables (very rarely)

Instructions:

1. Gathering grass: Prisoners, risking severe punishment, would try to gather grass near the camps and ghettos. This was usually done in secret to avoid retribution from the guards.
2. Preparation: Due to the scarcity of water, grass was often eaten raw. If water was available, grass could be rinsed or boiled to soften it slightly.
3. Consumption: Grass was typically eaten without any seasoning or additional ingredients, as other food products were practically unattainable.

Historical Context: In concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Dachau, prisoners were forced to survive on extremely low food rations, which did not meet even the minimum nutritional needs. Numerous survivor accounts from this period describe how Holocaust victims—both Jews and other groups—ate grass and other inedible plants to ease their hunger. This often led to severe health issues, as the human body is not equipped to digest grass in a way that extracts nutrients. Nonetheless, in the most desperate situations, grass became the only “food” available.

Examples of consuming grass are recounted by Holocaust survivors and victims of other catastrophic events, such as the Great Famine in Ukraine in the 1930s and the Siege of Leningrad during World War II. Eating grass was a symbol of absolute desperation, when people were cut off from any normal food sources.

Today, in a tragically similar situation to that of World War II, Palestinians in Gaza are being forced to turn to grass for sustenance due to the total blockade imposed by Israeli forces. With months of siege and the cutoff of food and humanitarian aid, many desperate residents of Gaza are gathering grass and other wild plants to survive.