Pound donation

The donation of pounds , more rarely also called the collection of pounds , was a donation in kind of non-perishable food such as pasta, peas, sugar or canned food, packed in bags. During the time of National Socialism , helpers from the Winter Relief Organization collected the pound donations, put them together in food parcels and distributed them to those in need.

organization

The pound donation was not an original invention from the Nazi era. Local and church welfare organizations called for sterling collections even before 1933 . The Winterhilfswerk took over this idea, implemented it nationwide and had printed bags distributed for the first time in December 1933. The collectors were instructed not to simply put these bags in mailboxes, but to hand them over to the housewife in person. Usually the collection was done once a month; apparently more often locally or with bags that could hold up to four pounds.

In the printed annual report of the Winter Relief Organization from 1937/38, the amount donated through the pound donation is given as 29,254,716 kg. From 1939 at the latest, when food cards allowed food quotas, a monetary donation was requested and acknowledged to “replace the pound donation”. From 1943 onwards, the collection of pound donations, now officially ordered, was no longer carried out.

Judgment from contemporary witnesses

“We had an older, very nice teacher [1936] who was responsible for collecting the 'sterling donation' for the winter relief organization in his residential area. We children pulled a handcart and he asked for donations: We gradually loaded flour, sugar, pulses and potatoes onto our little cart. My mother said it was good, it would help poor people. My father said it was 'a party scam' ”.

post war period

The idea of ​​the original National Socialist sterling donation was revived in individual West German regions: According to a newspaper report, the 1953 Christmas party for the needy was organized in a district of Garching an der Alz with "sterling donations". The community newspaper of Straßkirchen reports on “donations of pounds” that were donated to needy citizens for Christmas in the 1960s.

Web links

• Photo: distribution

Individual evidence

1. ↑ z. B. Berlin-Schöneberg Welfare Association, Vossische Zeitung (evening edition) March 3, 1932, p. 4)
2. ^ Peter Zolling: Between Integration and Segregation - Social Policy in the 'Third Reich' using the example of the NSV in Hamburg. (Diss.) Frankfurt / M. 1986, ISBN 3-8204-8530-9 , pp. 170 and 190.
3. ↑ Germany reports of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SOPADE), 1934–1940, unv. Nachdr. Salzhausen 1980, 2 (1935) p. 1431 or p. 1424 and 1430 (December 1935)
4. ↑ Winter Relief Organization of the German People 1937/38: report ed. by the Reich Commissioner for the WHW
5. ↑ Orders, orders, announcements ed. from the NSDAP, Munich 1943
6. ↑ Contemporary witness testimony on Bert homepage (accessed September 13, 2013)
7. ↑ Chiemgauer local news from December 18, 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Community letter Strasskirchen 2005