Secret negotiations had been going on for weeks between the German occupiers and the allied forces. Food transports had to be organised for the starving population in the west of the country. The Hunger Winter was having a serious impact there and the Germans were no longer able to provide sufficient food. In the first week of May 1945, the Nude in Wageningen transformed into a huge open-air storage area.
Starvation in West-NL
On 17th September 1944, the Dutch government in London called for a general strike of the railways in The Netherlands. As a result, the Germans refused to transport food to the west of The Netherlands. There were no alternative means of transport and the winter that followed in 1944-45 was unbearably cold. The result was wide-spread starvation in the west of The Netherlands. By April 1945, the situation had become so serious that there was no more food to be distributed. The Allies decided to negotiate food aid with the Germans. These negotiations took place in Achterveld on 28th April 1945 and resulted in food drops by bombers, food being shipped in by boat and distributed by road. Canadian lorries brought 300 tons of food to Wageningen every day. From there, lorry drivers took the food to its destinations. The Canadians provided 750 3-ton vehicles and huge piles of food parcels were made along the road from Wageningen to Rhenen. The transportation started on 2nd May 1945. One week later, 30 trucks passed the demarcation line every thirty minutes.
