food was barely adequate; watery soup twice a day and a 1 kg loaf between 5 people each day. red cross parcels arriving in mid october 1942 allowed an improvement in nutrition, one parcel per person per week until december 1944 when german transport systems started to collapse. some cases of food including, milk, fruit, jam, fish and soap were received from the red cross in addition to individual parcels. december parcels included a christmas pudding and marzipan sweets. books and games began to arrive. a few parcels from the uk and the islands were received.