The worst dislocation of agriculture was caused by the German zonal partitions , which cut off Western Germany from its " breadbasket " of farm lands east of the Oder-Neisse line that had accounted for 35 % of Germany 's prewar food production , and which the Yalta Conference had given to Poland to compensate for lands of Eastern Poland . The Soviet Union , with millions of its own starving citizens at home , was not willing to distribute this production to the population in western Germany . In January 1945 , the basic German ration was 1,625 calories/day , and that was further reduced to 1,100 calories by the end of the war in the British zone , and remained at that level into the summer , with levels varying from 840 calories/day in the Ruhr to 1,340 calories/day in Hamburg . The situation was no better in the American zones of Germany and Austria
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Disarmed Enemy Forces