Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 20 mark note, owned by a Polish Jewish survivor
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 3.125 inches (7.938 cm) | Width: 6.250 inches (15.875 cm)
Creator(s)
- Wanda Lomazow (Subject)
Biographical History
Wanda Neumark (Neimark) was born in Łódź, Poland, in 1919 to Ewa and Salomon Neumark. She had two younger sisters, Hala, (later Helen Fagin) born in 1922, and Teresa, born in 1930. They were raised in Radomsko. In September 1939, Germany invaded and occupied Poland. The Jewish population of Radomsko were confined to a ghetto. Wanda escaped the ghetto with the help of Henryk Wroblewski. She assumed a non-Jewish alias, Natalia Władysława Drozdowska. She was living in Busko-Zdrój when the city was liberated in January 1945 by Soviet forces. The war ended when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. She learned that her parents were deported and murdered in Treblinka killing center in September 1942. Wanda and her sisters left for Austria. Wanda worked for United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Wels and Badgstein displaced persons camps. In June 1946, Wanda married a Jewish American soldier Jacob Lomazow (1917-2012) and, in October, immigrated to the United States. Wanda, 67, passed away in 1986.
Archival History
The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Steven Lomazow.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Steven M. Lomazow
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
20 (zwanzig) mark receipt issued in the Łódź ghetto acquired by Wanda Neumark. The Germans used ghettos to segregate and control the Jewish population. All currency and valuables were confiscated and a system of scrip or Quittungen [receipts] that could be exchanged only in the ghetto was implemented. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, Wanda, 20, her parents Salomon and Ewa, and her younger sisters Hela and Teresa were confined to the Radomsko ghetto. Wanda escaped with the help of Henryk Wroblewski and assumed a non-Jewish identity as Natalia Władysława Drozdowska. Her parents were murdered in Treblinka killing center in September 1942. Wanda was liberated in Busko-Zdroj by Soviet forces in January 1945. The war ended when Germany surrendered that May. Wanda and her sisters left for Austria. In June 1946, Wanda married a Jewish American soldier Jacob Lomazow and immigrated to the United States that October.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Łódź ghetto scrip printed on rectangular offwhite paper in brown and black ink. The face has a latticework underprint. The serial number is in red in the upper left corner. The denomination 20 is in the lower left corner and in the upper right corner in a black square. There is a 1.5 inch left margin, then a rectangle with a rounded upper left corner with a pattern of interlocked Stars of David and an encircled Star of David in the upper left corner. Across the center is the denomination Zwanzig Mark and German text. The back has a blank 1.5 inch right margin and a rectangle with a pattern of interlocked Stars of David. In the upper left corner is the denomination Zwanzig Mark and in the lower left corner is a menorah or 7-branched candelabrum. The denomination 20 is outside the lower right corner of the rectangle; above this, near the upper right corner, is a Star of David outline in a black square. The scrip is in like new condition.
Subjects
- Holocaust survivors--United States--Biography.
- Jews--Persecutions--Poland--Radomsko--Biography.
- Jewish refugees--Austria--Biography.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Personal narratives.
- Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945--Biography.
Genre
- Object
- Exchange Media