Title: Ghetto and Camp Currency, Correspondence and Related Artifacts, 1908-1945
Arrangement
The arrangement scheme for the record group was imposed during processing in the absence of an original order. Materials are arranged by subject/creator, then by the identifier, as assigned by the processor.
Record group is comprised of seven collections: 1. Collection of ghetto and camp money; 2. Numismatic collection; 3. Collection of camp and ghetto correspondence; 4. Eva Beckman collection; 5. Collection of Nazi Germany emigration bonds; 6. Collection of Nazi-counterfeited British bank notes; 7. Collection of Sonderkommando tags.
Abstract
This is an authentic collection of ghetto and camp currency, notes and slips that were issued by the ghetto administrations instead of real currency for internal usage in ghettos and camps. The issuance of ghetto money had to be authorized by German authorities. The record group is subdivided into the Lodz Ghetto collection, Theresienstadt Ghetto collection, and the camp collections. This record group also includes the banknotes of several European countries issued in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. It also contains multiple artifacts related to mundane ghetto and camp life.
Administrative/Biographical History
The record group includes the banknotes of several European countries issued in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries; bonds issued by the Conversion Office for German Foreign Debts paid to German Jews for confiscated property; multiple artifacts related to ghetto and camp life, such as camp uniform, pottery from the Sobibor concentration camp, and Sonderkommando tags; and ghetto and camp correspondence, including letters and postcards written from the places of incarceration to relatives and friends. The camp correspondence collections includes Józef Jon ski’s correspondence from Dachau concentration camp, Jurek Gutkind’s corresponded with Anna Lipszyc from the Lublin prison and Buchenwald concentration camp, and there is a letter from Kasimir Fidor from Oranienburg concentration camp.
This record group is comprised of collections--specifically those related to ghetto and camp scripts, a German-introduced surrogate for monetary signs. First, for example, Lodz and Theresienstadt ghettos printed the scripts of their own, while the other ghettos circulated local or German currency. Contrarily, many Nazi-German concentration camps operated with the scripts of their own. This coupon-like currency, printed by the camp administrations, was good only for inter-camp use. Also, in ghettos and camps, cigarettes and food could often serve as a currency-like commodities. (Food rarely had any true monetary value and often emerged on the initiative of the Jewish administration in Lodz and Theresienstadt.)
A monetary sub-collection contains banknotes of Weimar Republic. Once issued in the year of 1923, they illustrate an iniquitousness of hyperinflation, overwhelming the Weimar Republic. The very denominations of one hundred thousand and one hundred million serve as a proof of economic and financial crisis.
Banknotes issued in German-occupied countries and territories also exhibit differences in the status of control and occupation. Comparing the following banknotes--Five Kroner of Denmark of 1942, Five Belgian Francs of 1943, and the Five Ukrainian Karbovantsiv of 1942--one can see that Denmark and Belgian retained a currency of their own, in terms of language and design. However, the Ukrainian banknotes, issued by the German authorities in Ukraine reflects the status of an occupied territory, controlled by German military and civil administration.
Author: Staff