Taste of Poland Festival in Norcross, Georgia - an Annual Fundraiser for the Casimir Pulaski Polish Saturday School
Photo Credit: Agnieszka Sulewska, Barbara Rouse Photography, Paulina Jezierska, Dorota Olson
The subject of the 8th Taste of Poland Festival is Forbidden Poland 1939-1944, a time when Poland was occupied and everyday life was full of forbidding laws. These limitations extended to the kitchen.
Every product was rationed (clothes, coal, groceries) in very small amounts and was very expansive in relation to a typical income of the Polish person. During that time new cookbooks were created, which made cooking with 3 - 4 ingredients more interesting. They contained recipes such as how to make potatoes in 60 ways, how to make honey from carrots or a pudding from cabbage.
Polish people adopted the German word “Ersatz" which means substitute of a lesser value. The real coffee was substituted for coffee made out of roasted chestnuts. Grinding chestnuts was not an easy matter as grinders were forbidden and confiscated. Boiled chestnuts also substituted for potatoes. Real tea was precious and very expensive on the black market, so in its stead the tea was made from dried apple or carrot peals. Hunting and fishing was forbidden.
Polish people were not allowed to buy fish, wheat and wheat flour products, fruit or vegetables (their lists constantly grew), alcohol or cigarettes.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg on the long list of the substitutes and the things forbidden to Polish people.
Because of the extreme limitations in quantity and quality of everyday products, Polish people became experts in smuggling and cooking something out of nothing.
What is Forbidden Poland? Here are some examples...
From October 1939 “normal” life ceased to exist. Unnoticeable, ordinary, everyday things suddenly became severely punishable crimes. Every aspect of life was controlled and restricted. Everything Polish was forbidden, including the word “Poland” - Polish national colors, Polish language, Polish names of streets, institutions or offices, Polish books written by Polish authors, music composed by Polish composers (especially Chopin’s, because Robert Schumann said that his music is like “cannons hidden in flowers” - and, by the way, he was right). A Pole caught listening to or singing the Polish national anthem, was shot on sight. Attending schools was forbidden, except four classes of an elementary school or a technical education. A Pole, a subhuman only needed to count to a 100 and understand the German commands. It was forbidden to visit libraries, theaters, cinemas, parks, fields, swimming pools and sit on public benches. It was forbidden to have and to listen to the radio. Cars, skies, weapons, radio sets, books, mills and grinders, some apartments, homes, life stock… were confiscated. Using public forms of transportation was forbidden - trams, buses, trains - without special permission and only in designated parts. Everything that wasn’t strictly forbidden, was rationed by cards - food, clothing, coal - in amounts too small to survive, of very poor quality, and very expensive.
Marriages were forbidden for males under 28 and females under 25. Parents of a newborn baby had only 16 approved names to choose from and the middle name was always Kazimiera or Kazimierz.
Marshall Las was imposed, which changed slightly through the years, but mostly curfew was between 8pm and 5am.
Any information about the Polish Underground Government was forbidden. Stories about Polish soldiers and their inventions that influenced the lot of those fighting were forbidden then and long time after.
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