Inside Germany, home-front morale sprang little fissures. Basic trouble: a food shortage.
In Berlin a 27-year-old woman was beheaded for snatching another woman's purse. Execution for such trivial offenses was decreed to help stop the flow of stolen ration cards into the hands of speculators.
A Reich Food Administration spokesman explained his problem: ". . . loss of the agricultural district in the east is a difficulty. . . . Our supply organization is now sharply strained . . . strictest rationing and best organization are necessary for us to get through these twelve months [of 1944]. The millions of foreign workers...