Translate to English: In the summer of 1916, the outlook for food supplies had become so bleak that Folkort Posthuma, the Minister of Agriculture, Trade, and Industry, submitted a new bill. This new law later became known as the Distribution Act

Luberta de Hondt, better known as Berta de Vries, was a member of a (women's) Committee against High Prices. She participated in the Amsterdam 'Potato Uprising,' a protest rooted mainly in the Jordaan and Kattenburg neighborhoods against food shortages, poor quality, and high prices. According to SDAP municipal councilor S.R. de Miranda, the rebels represented "the most backward part of the working class," while Minister F.E. Posthuma labeled the protesters as looters. However, De Vries made arrangements for the acquired potatoes to be paid for, to the extent possible. During a visit by a delegation of Amsterdam women to the minister on July 4, she strongly denied his accusations. She consistently acted with authority, which was reflected in her gaze. Her commanding presence commanded so much respect that the police officer avoided her during the street riots, and the tram conductor never asked her if she had paid (even though she hadn't)

Potato merchant Dusseldorp

Birth Certificate from Bertha de Vries

An assault by women on the vegetable and potato warehouses of the Groenmarkt, located almost along the entire length of the South Marnixstraat. For a long time, they resisted the police cordon, and with exemplary patience, the police endured all the taunting, teasing, and later, numerous projectiles that were thrown at them, above and around their heads. Then, at a certain moment, the barricade was broken, and hundreds of women attacked the cellars of the storage buildings from the back, the waterside. Within a minimal amount of time, the cellars were forced open, and the women rushed inside, carrying away many cabbages, bundles of carrots, baskets of spinach, and sacks of potatoes. At the moment we took the photograph, the police fired their revolvers and simultaneously charged. - Every man for himself!"

The Potato in the Netherlands The potato was brought to Europe from South America in the 16th century. Initially, potatoes were rarely eaten because it was believed that they, like the plant itself, were toxic. They were primarily used as animal feed or consumed by the very poor. It wasn't until the 18th century that eating potatoes became a habit for the Dutch people. Potato plants thrived in the Dutch soil and provided an affordable solution to malnutrition and scurvy. Over the course of a few centuries, the potato has become closely intertwined with the Dutch identity. We produce eight million tons of potatoes per year, and the average Dutch person consumes 81 kilograms of potatoes per year

Newspaper clipping from the Dutch Newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad in 1917

A crowd forcefully breaks open warehouses, believing they contain potatoes. The police are unable to intervene. Here, the doors of the warehouse 'Spitsbergen' [on Brouwersgracht] are wide open

The potatoes were delivered to the warehouses and green markets via waterways. During the days of the Potato Uprising, the potato-laden ships were often attacked by women and emptied. There are also stories of skippers voluntarily leaving their boats out of solidarity

On June 28, 1917, there were no potatoes available in the Jordaan neighborhood. The First World War had caused a disruption in the import and export of food. When it was discovered that a ship filled with potatoes was moored in the Prinsengracht canal, women from the Jordaan flocked there to plunder the ship

Officially, building was not allowed in inner courtyards, but in the Jordaan neighborhood, people paid no attention to that. Slumlords constructed cheap buildings behind existing houses, which could be accessed through alleyways and passages less than a meter wide. In the 18th century, there were 972 alleyways leading to 1,690 back houses in the Jordaan, accommodating 3,795 families. In neighborhood FF, with Lauriergracht at its center, there were 33 of these alleyways. During the construction period, cost-cutting measures often resulted in the omission of proper foundation piles, causing several houses to begin sinking. A building plot could not exceed a width of 20 feet, approximately 28 centimeters. An adjacent passageway could not be boarded up completely. A roof was allowed, but it had to be high enough for a man carrying a basket of peat on his head to pass underneath. This was to ensure that people living behind such a passage could still obtain peat for their stoves