Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and Heard — John Shaqi
Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and HeardMcAuley, Mary Ethel
History
Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and Heard
McAuley, Mary Ethel
World War, 1914-1918 -- Germany
You present your green slip, which the man outside has stamped, and
your passport to the chief, and after more filing and stamping both on
the slip and on your pass, you are ready to move. As soon as you get to
Wilmersdorf the new _Portier_ gives you three white slips to fill out.
They are very similar to the green ones and ask the same questions. The
_Portier_ signs these, and he keeps one, sends one to the magistrate
of Wilmersdorf, and with the third white slip, your green slip and your
pass, you go to the police in Wilmersdorf. Here they file and stamp and
then give you back your pass and the white slip which has been stamped
for the bread commission.
It is not necessary to go to the bread commission in Charlottenburg,
but you must take all your food cards and your white slip with you
to the bread commission in Wilmersdorf. Here they look over all your
cards very carefully to make sure you are not trying to cheat them and
then they give you an entirely new lot of cards cutting them off up to
date so you can't get more than your share of food. So far moving has
been easy, but the worst part of the business is to come, and that is
getting registered to buy meat, eggs, butter, sugar and potatoes at
certain stores. Lately this registering has been somewhat simplified,
and you can get registered at the bread commission for all the articles
except meat, but when the registering was first introduced each person
had to go to the _Rathaus_ or city hall himself and get registered for
each article. This meant that one had to stand at least an hour--for
there were always such crowds--at five different rooms waiting to have
your sugar, meat, butter, potato and egg cards stamped so that you
would be allowed to buy these articles, and after you were registered
you could buy them only in a certain store, but if you weren't
registered you couldn't buy these articles at all. This registering
scheme was a very good one, for since it has been introduced there
has been no standing for any of these articles, and when the people go
for their butter or eggs they find it waiting for them, and the food
controllers give each shopkeeper just as much of each of these articles
as he can show he has customers registered to buy that article in his
store. This has also done away with a lot of selling _Ohne Karte_, or
without a card, for the shopkeeper does not dare to sell without cards,
for then he would not have enough for his registered customers and then
the police would get after him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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