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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.
The
Barnes Review, 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 digitalized version © 2001 by The
Scriptorium.
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The Barnes Review,
issue Jan.-Feb.
2001

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. They 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 Dachau and still existed in the displaced 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.

The above collage, taken from the cover of
Das Lagergeld der Konzentrations- und D.P.-Lager: 1933-1945
by Albert Pick and Carl Siemsen, shows just a sample of the money
printed for camps and ghettos. The predominantly-white note on the
right says: "Jewish Money. Only legal as a means of payment for
Jewish work within the ghetto Sokolka. City Treasury of Sokolka, The
Mayor."

The irrefutable proof is
the existence of 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,
Ravensbrück, Westerbork and at least 15 other camps. (See Paper Money
of the World Part I: Modern Issues of Europe by Arnold Keller, Ph.D.,
1956, pp. 23-25 for a complete listing.)

A monetary system was also in existence in the ghettos, most notably
Theresienstadt and Lodz, which produced beautiful notes (veritable works
of art) that make U.S. currency look dull.

There are numerous dealers in rare 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:

Oranienburg was the first known camp to have
Lagergeld for its 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.

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.

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

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.)

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 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 Camps, Dachau also functioned as
a work camp. This explains the appearance of paper tokens printed in
1944.... Dachau's tokens were of three different values: 1, 2 and 3
marks. The prisoner's identification number is written on the front
of this green note, alongside the date when it was issued, January
31, 1945. In fact, all of Dachau's tokens list the prisoner's
identification numbers." Stahl, pp. 18- 19.

Auschwitz
"At a death camp it would seem
that there was very little need for money." (The Shekel, Vol.
XVI, No. 2, March-April 1983, p. 43.)

A Dachau camp
note.

An Auschwitz camp note.

Theresienstadt
Print runs for
Theresienstadt Kroner

Denomination

1 Th. kr.

2 Th. kr.
5 Th.
kr.
10 Th. kr.

20 Th. kr.
50 Th.
kr.
100 Th. kr.

Size

100 x 50 mm
110 x 55 mm

120 x 58 mm
125 x 63
mm
135 x 66 mm
140 x
77 mm
150 x 77 mm

Color

Green
Rose

Blue

Brown

Green
Dk.
Green

Red-brown

Qty Printed

2,242,000
1,019,000

530,000
456,000

319,000
159,000

279,000

See: The Shekel Vol. XVI, No. 2,
March/April 1983, p. 33.

These beautiful
Theresienstadt 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

5 RM       Dark Brown

Lodz ghetto money.

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

Bibliography:

American Israel Numismatic Association (Temarac,
Florida).

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

Schöne, 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.

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