[PDF]Concentration Camp Money ' Lagergeld' Used To Pay Prisoners For Their Work Jennifer White

Concentration Camp Money: 'Lagergeld' used to Pa...


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Concentration Camp Money


‘Lagergeld' used to Pay Prisoners for Their Work


Article from The Barnes Review, Jan./Feb. 2001, pp. 7-9.
TBR, 645 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Suite 100, Washington D.C. 20003, USA.
By Jennifer White, administrative director of TBR;
published here with kind permission from TBR.
This digitized version © 2001-2019 by The Scriptorium.


Far from being the "death camps" as you
have heard so often, places like
Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald were
not in the business of extermination. an bs
were work camps, critical to the German
war effort. But did you know that the
Jewish workers were compensated for
their labor with scrip printed specifically
for their use in stores, canteens and even
brothels? The prisoner monetary system
was conceived in ghettos such as Lodz,
carried to camps such as Auschwitz and The: Bamee fe co
Dachau and still existed in the displaced _ issue Jan.-Feb. 2001
persons camps that were established by

the Allies after World War II. Here is the story of the money
the court historians do not want you to even suspect
existed.





Piles of incinerated corpses were indicting images at Nuremberg,
used to prove that the German-run concentration camps during
World War II were intended for purposes of exterminating the
Jews of Europe. However, a plethora of documentary evidence,
long suppressed, shows that prisoners were relatively well-
treated, compensated for their hard work and allowed to
purchase luxuries to which even the German public did not have
ready access. This is not the image of abject deprivation that the
Holocaust lobby would like you to entertain.


a means of exchange for goods and
services: Money. There were at least
134 separate issues, in different
denominations and styles, for such
notorious places as Auschwitz,
Buchenwald, Dachau, Oranienburg,
Ravensbruck, Westerbork and at least





15 other camps. (See Paper Money of <= RN ef ho
the World Part I: Modern Issues of =e iunistiomenwende con
Europe by Arnold Keller, Ph.D., 1956, the cover of Das Lagergeld
pp. 23-25 for a complete listing.) der Konzentrations- und
D.P.-Lager: 1933-1945 by
A monetary system was also in Albert Pick and Carl Siemsen,
existence in the ghettos, most notably shows just a sample of the


Theresienstadt and Lodz, which money printed for camps and
ghettos. The predominantly-


produced beautiful notes (veritable white note on the right says:
works of art) that make U.S. currency — "Jewish Money. Only legal as a


look dull. means of payment for Jewish
work within the ghetto
There are numerous dealers in rare Sokolka. City Treasury of


Sokolka, The Mayor."


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Currency and numismatics who specialize in selling
“concentration camp money" or "Holocaust money" as it has been
sometimes called. But the very fact of its existence does not seem
to have raised questions - as it should have - about what really did
(and did not) happen inside the so-called "death camps" where
the Holocaust scrip was circulating in the first place.


This scrip was not negotiable outside of the camp for which it was
issued. This decreased the chance of a successful escape and
made it impossible for the general public to purchase some of the
rare luxuries available in the camps. According to Albert Pick in
Das Lagergeld der Konzentrations- und D.P-Lager: 1933-1945:


Inmates were not paid for
the work but were given
"coupons" now and then to
buy things in the
"Kantine".... As the war
progressed badly and the
number of workers declined,
the KZ worker potential
became important. Offers of
"premiums" and other
advantages were made to the
inmates, tobacco was offered
and even visits to
bordellos.... In order that
these scrips could not be
used outside the camps,


special money was printed. Wine


tage rgctd








Letter from Prisoner No. 11647
Block 28/3 Dachau KIII on
September 8, 1940 to his relative in
Litzmannstadt (Lodz):


diefer Guiichyein if nur gititig innerhalb des
Aongemrationsiagers Oraniendurg





Oranienburg was the first known
camp to have Lagergeld for its


I must write you something
about myself. I am very well.
In the canteen I buy honey,
marmalade, cookies, fruit
and other food. If you worry
about me, you'll indeed be
committing a sin. I have
more reason to worry about
you.... (Letters from the
Doomed: Concentration Camp
Correspondence 1940-1945,
Richard S. Geehr.)


prisoners. The issues for this
particular camp were in 5 Pfg.
(green), 10 Pfg. (blue), 50 Pfg.
(brown) and 1 Mark
denominations. (Printed 1933 -
August 1934, when the camp
closed.) Unlike Theresienstadt,
these notes were fairly plain
without multiple colors and
watermarks. Yet even these
demonstrate the care and
attention given to the design of
money for the workers.


There was a payment schedule at Theresienstadt utilizing Th. kr.
(Theresienstadt kroner) as the unit of exchange. (The Shekel Vol.
XVI, No. 2, March-April 1983 p. 29). The breakdown looked like
this:


Working men, according to their jobs: 105-205 Th. kr.
Working women, according to their jobs: 95-205 Th. kr.
Part-time workers: 80 Th. kr.

Caretakers: 70 Th. kr.

War-wounded and holders of the Iron Cross, First Class
degree or higher: 195 Th. kr.

Prominente (doctors, professors, scientists, well-
known Cultural artists and politicians): 145 Th. kr.


To put this in perspective, a cup of coffee cost 2 Th. kr. The
circulation in Theresienstadt was such that it was necessary to


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print over 5 million notes. See Papirove Penize Na Uzemi
Ceskoslovenska 1762-1975, Second Edition, 1975, Hradek
Kralove, trans. by Julius Sem, pp. 134-135.


The first worker's camp to have its own scrip was Oranienburg.
Before using the camp scrip they used German currency in
nearby towns, but the authorities decided to centralize. Currency
was exchanged for camp money, less 30%. (The Shekel, Vol XVI,
No. 2, March-April 1983, p. 40: "Concentration Camp Money of
the Nazi Holocaust" by Steven Feller.)


Similarly at Buchenwald:


Each prisoner was allowed up to 10 marks per week to
be used for the purchase of cigarettes at the camp
canteen, other canteen purchases, brothel visits, or
credit to a savings account. The regulations went on to
specify that a visit to a brothel would cost 2 marks for
which 1.5 marks would be Kept by the SS and 0.5
marks would be used for "expenses." (Ibid., p. 41.)


Was there a similar situation at all of the other camps - at least
those that issued currency? As this includes Auschwitz, it would
be shocking indeed to even consider marmalade and cigarettes
being purchased in this "death camp." Even the existence of
money in camps gives us a look at what life was really like there,
yet this information has yet to make it to the History Channel.








Infamous and Intricate Camp
Money


Dachau
",. [W]e must remember that
like most other Concentration


Konzentrationsiager Dacheu


Camps, Dachau also functioned PRAMIENSCHEIN

as a work camp. This explains lS oo
the appearance of paper tokens Hafiling Nr. re :
printed in 1944.... Dachau's WERT: RM 1— ©
tokens were of three different “4 =
values: 1, 2 and 3 marks. The Amgrgeben em ip t ce =
prisoner's identification Lstaat hoch Laemecial Nr 546813:
number is written on the front vee ka


wintersonnenwende.com





of this green note, alongside
the date when it was issued,
January 31, 1945. In fact, allof -
Dachau's tokens list the |
prisoner's identification
numbers." Stahl, pp. 18- 19.


A Dachau camp note.





Auschwitz

"At a death camp it would seem
that there was very littleneed = = ©

for money." (The Shekel, Vol. eS win











XVI, No. 2, March-April 1983, An Auschwitz camp note.
p. 43.)
Theresienstadt
Print runs for Theresienstadt Kroner
Size Color Qty Printed
Denomination 100 x 50 Green
1 Th. kr mm Rose 2,242,000
2 Th. kr. 110 x55 Blue 1,019,000
5 Th. kr mm Brown 530,000
10 Th. kr. 120 x 58 Green 456,000
20 Th. kr mm Dk. 319,000
50 Th. kr. 125 x 63 Green 159,000


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mm
135 x 66
mm
100Th. kr. 140x77 neg 279,000
brown
mm
150 x 77
mm
See: The Shekel Vol. XVI, No. 2, March/April 1983, p. 33.


: Or bs


| QUITTING CaER ‘ ae Cau
JaUNDERT HONE L Gu itbets


iinsal


Red
: ees }





These beautiful econ: notes, complete with |
watermarks, demonstrate the high-quality artwork and printing
of the money.


Lodz
Colors of the different types of
currency in Lodz.
In print runs in 1940, 1942 and
1944:
50 Pfg. Violet
1 RM Olive-green
2 RM Light Brown Lodz ghetto money.
5 RM Dark Brown


Information from Das Lagergeld der Konzentrations- und D.P.-Lager: 1933-1945
by Albert Pick and Carl Siemsen.


MOOONT4





eT |


Bibliography:
American Israel Numismatic Association (Temarac, Florida).


Pick, Albert. Das Lagergeld der Konzentrations- und D.P.-Lager: 1933-1945,
Munich, Battenberg Publishers, 1976.


Schone, Michael H., Das Papiergeld im besetzten Deutschland 1945-1949,
Regenstauf: Gietl, 1994.


Stahl, Zvi, Jewish Ghettos and Concentration Camps' Money, 1933-1945, London:


D. Richman Books, 1990.


See also:


Campbell, Lance K., Dachau concentration camp scrip, Margate, Florida:
American Israel Numismatic Association, 1992.


The Numismatist, April 1981, by Steven Feller.


Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, 1965, 1996, "POW Money and Medals" by
Slabaugh, R. Arlie.


Schultze, Manfred, Unsere Arbeit - unsere Hoffnung: Das Ghetto in Lodz
1940-1945, Schwalmtal: Phil-Creativ, 1995.


Sem, Julius, Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, 1977 (Theresienstadt
notes).


Shtarot, Vol. I, No. 2, Oct. 1976. Yasha L. Beresiner.


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Concentration Camp Money
‘Lagergeld' used to Pay Prisoners for Their Work


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