War-era household methods offer lessons for crisis planning

Household methods used during the Second World War could help people prepare for a crisis, according to DR, which reports on advice from a curator at the Occupation Museum in Aarhus.

Denmark’s Emergency Management Agency has published a list of supplies people should have to manage on their own for 72 hours. DR compares that advice with life during the war, when shortages made self-reliance part of everyday life for many families.

The museum has recreated a 1944 attic apartment in its basement. It includes household tools such as a hay box, which could finish cooking food or keep it warm without electricity or fuel. When gas supplies were uncertain, many households also used wood-burning cookers, fuelled with firewood or tightly rolled newspaper briquettes.

Museum curator Søren Tange Rasmussen says having an alternative to an electric cooker could be useful today. The article also points to a Trangia set and an Omnia oven as options.

With food in short supply, people sought ways to make it last. Pickling and preserving became popular during the occupation as families built up stores for winter. Carrots could also be kept in a bucket of sand or soil.

Heating was another challenge because gas and coal were scarce. People wore straw shoes to keep their feet warm and used tiled stoves fuelled with peat or waste wood when gas was unavailable. Rasmussen says it may be useful to have a source of heat that does not rely on gas.

To stay informed, people relied on newspapers and FM radio. DR’s article says newspapers also shared household advice and practical tips.