References to food in the letters of Jews interned in the Drancy camp in France during the Second World War

This study is embedded within a broader interdisciplinary research framework examining the functions of writing under conditions of war and extreme deprivation. It is based on an analysis of letters written by Jews interned in the Drancy internment camp in France during the Occupation. The study draws on a corpus of 300 letters preserved at the Mémorial de la Shoah. The analysis presented here reflects the contribution of one of the groups composed of psychologists and historians. Food emerged as a focal theme of the research because of its frequency in the corpus and its relevance for understanding how the external context of deprivation shaped the ways in which internees expressed their needs. The analysis highlights the multiple functions of food references, revealing variations in authors’ intentions, modes of expression, and affective tone. These findings show that references to food operate not only as indicators of material deprivation, but also as key sites where biological need, emotions, and relational dynamics are negotiated through writing. Finally, this study opens methodological perspectives by suggesting avenues for further analysis of other themes within the corpus and for continued interdisciplinary exploration of writing as a psychological resource in contexts of internment and extreme violence.