Emergency Stove

The last winter of the war (1944-1945) was extremely icy and cold. Hunger was rampant in the west of the Netherlands, particularly in the big cities. There was also a large shortage of fuel. The supply of coal from the province of Limburg had come to a halt. To make a bad situation even worse, from November 1944 the gas and electricity in Amsterdam was often shut down. No gas, no coal, and as a result no heating. So anything flammable was burnt in makeshift stoves like this one.