Post-War CARE Packages:US Aid in Cans

Corned beef and whole milk powder:the CARE package is a symbol of the post-war years. The first aid packages arrive in Germany on July 15, 1946 - Bremerhaven becomes the hub for distribution.

by Carsten Pilger

Germany in May 1945:The Nazi reign of terror left Europe in ruins. After the end of hostilities, many people in Germany lost their homes or fled from the former eastern territories to the west. Already during the Second World War, many refugees end up in Schleswig-Holstein, for example, where around a million more people live by 1946 than before the start of the war. Many without belongings. The food rations are often not enough for everyone. In the second winter after the war, the so-called hunger winter, hunger, poverty and uncertainty prevail in large parts of the north.

CARE Packages:Help for the Former Enemy

The images of the bombed-out old continent and the suffering Europeans also reach the USA. In November 1945, 22 American charities, including church organizations such as the Salvation Army and trade unions, came together to form the "Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe", or CARE for short, to support the needy and poor with food, clothing and coal for heating. Aid deliveries to occupied Germany are not permitted at the beginning, the unconditional support of Hitler from many Germans is still having too strong an effect.

But there are also many Americans of German origin living in the United States who, in view of the starving civilians in their former homeland, are pushing for the delivery ban to be lifted. In February 1946, President Harry S. Truman finally approved private aid to Germany. A few months later, the first ship with CARE packages reaches Germany.

Bremerhaven hub:canned meat and chewing gum

On July 15, 1946, the American freighter "American Ranger" arrives in Bremerhaven. The first 35,700 CARE packages addressed to German families are on board. Since the North Sea coast mostly belongs to the British occupation zone, the Americans control Bremen - Bremerhaven becomes the pivotal point for supplies to the rest of Germany. The parcels do not cover the distances without effort, because after the war the postal and transport system is only just being rebuilt. The American zone is supplied first. The British and French zones follow. On October 2, 1947, an "old woman from Hamburg with trembling hands" received the first CARE package in Hamburg, as the "Hamburger Abendblatt" later wrote. With few exceptions, however, hardly any packages reach the Soviet zone - this is also an expression of the system dispute between East and West.

CARE catering originally intended for US troops

Seen from the outside, they are simple brown packages that more and more people are now receiving, printed with the abbreviation of the aid organization, CARE. Inside each packet are high-calorie, long-life foods and some stimulants:

• 9.8 pounds of meat and offal
• 6.5 pounds of cereal, oatmeal and cookies
• 3.6 pounds of fruit and pudding
• 2.3 pounds of vegetables
• 3.9 pounds of sugar
• 1.1 pounds of powdered cocoa, coffee and other beverages
• 0.8 pounds of condensed milk
• 0.5 pounds of butter
• 0.4 pounds of cheese
• a pack of cigarettes, some chewing gum.

The compilation is not accidental. The organization acquires the first CARE packages from US Army stocks that are actually intended for feeding troops. With the end of the War in the Pacific, the Army has a surplus of provisions. They are so-called ten-in-one portions:the contents of each package are intended to provide ten soldiers with a meal. But the approximately 2.8 million field rations with which the organization started its activities in Europe were already used up in March 1947.

Aid packages become a much-coveted commodity in the post-war period

The aid organization CARE took this as an opportunity to change the composition of the packages from spring 1947. The need is no longer based on soldiers, but on families. 40,000 calories per package should help against rampant hunger, compiled from:

• 1 pound beef in broth
• 1 pound steaks and kidneys
• 0.5 pounds of liver
• 0.5 pounds of corned beef
• 0.75 pound "prem" (a type of luncheon meat)
• 0.5 pounds of bacon,
• 2 pounds of margarine
• 1 pound of lard
• 1 pound canned apricot
• 1 pound honey
• 1 pound raisins
• 1 pound chocolate
• 2 pounds of sugar
• 0.5 pound powdered eggs
• 2 pounds whole milk powder
• 2 pounds of coffee.

The packages are in great demand, and by no means everyone enjoys these deliveries. They are usually addressed to specific families - often relatives or acquaintances of US citizens. They buy the CARE package for first 15, later ten dollars. The organization ensures that the packages reach their recipients. A return receipt, which German families use to confirm receipt to their American patrons, creates additional trust. Unaddressed CARE packages are distributed centrally to those in need.

Peanut butter, Hershey bars:"American way of life" arouses enthusiasm

The CARE packages not only ensure gratitude among the recipients, but also arouse a real enthusiasm for hitherto rather unusual luxury foods and goods that are part of everyday life in the United States:peanut butter, Hershey chocolate bars, breakfast cereal with colorful cartoon characters on the Packaging. In addition, clothing or tools, sometimes English-language children's books and dictionaries. There are other variations to the standard CARE package:such as a turkey feast for the whole family. The shipments of goods across the Atlantic are part of a reconciliation between former wartime enemies - but also a means by the USA to gain new allies in the Germans.

CARE is not the only organization supporting Germany with aid packages in the post-war period. The "Council of Relief Agencies Licensed to Operate in Germany", CRALOG for short, was founded shortly after CARE and organized even more relief services for Germany overall. However, since the CRALOG packages are distributed via welfare organizations, they do not have the symbolic power of the CARE packages, which often lead to direct exchange between Germans and Americans.

CARE as an inspiration to help Germany too

CARE maintains its activities in Germany until 1960. Ten million CARE packages will have crossed the Atlantic by then. At this point, Germany is no longer dependent on aid supplies from the United States thanks to new prosperity. Instead, Germany itself sends packages based on the American CARE packages to regions in need. Or keep personal relationships in the GDR alive as "West packages". In 1980, an offshoot of CARE was founded in Germany, which is still active in the field of humanitarian aid today.

Long-lasting solidarity - and long-lasting food

The CARE package has remained to this day as a proverbial symbol of help, but also of reconciliation for former wartime enemies. A few years ago, the Warnemünde pharmacist Hans Feldmeier had it proven that not only the memory lasts for a long time. For 64 years he had kept a white and red tin can of Swift's Bland Lard brand lard. He had received them in the post-war period with a CARE package from the USA. An analysis by the Rostock State Office in 2012 - more than six decades after delivery - determined that the lard was in perfect condition. Although there are minor defects in smell and taste, "overall, the product can still be assessed as satisfactory in terms of the degree of freshness and the material composition after 64 years," said the head of the department, Frerk Feldhusen, at the time.