Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 2 mark note, found postwar

Miriam Novitch (1908-1990) was born in Yurtishki, Belarus, Russian Empire (now Belarus) to Batya and Moshe-Yaakow. Miriam was the middle of three children, with her brothers Yossef and Shim’on. Moshe worked as a wood merchant, he leased part of a forest and sold the wood to a paper factory. During World War I, the family fled to Russia. When they returned home after the war, they found that their town had been destroyed, and the area had been annexed to the newly independent Poland. Later, Batya died unexpectedly and Moshe remarried and had two other children. The family then moved to Vilna, and Miriam attended Gymnasium and studied Polish, German, and French. Throughout her childhood and youth, Miriam's father encouraged her to study. After graduation, Miriam traveled to Paris, France where she changed her name to Maria. There, she continued her language studies and qualified as a teacher for Russian and German. She worked in factories to support herself while studying, and gave private language lessons. In 1937, Miriam had a son, Boris, (Baruch, later known as Bob) from a brief marriage with the painter Moshe Kastel. After the start of World War II and the occupation of France by Germany in June 1940, Miriam joined the French resistance. At first, Miriam brought printed materials into Paris and handed them out for distribution in different parts of the city. In 1942, she began giving private Russian lessons to a SS member who was in charge of a truck factory. During the lessons he told her when truck convoys were leaving the factory, and Miriam relayed the information to the Resistance. Because of her language skills, Miriam became an intelligence agent and would go out with Germans to collect information. She also rescued fellow Jews by obtaining fake papers and hiding them in resistance safe houses. On June 10, 1943, Miriam was arrested by the Gestapo after being betrayed by a friend. She was interrogated multiple times and spent two months in a prison cell before she was transferred to Vittel internment camp. In the camp, a woman who was being deported entrusted her infant daughter to Miriam. Miriam named her Batya after her mother, and raised her as her own child. Miriam and Batya remained in Vittel until the camp was liberated by US troops on September 12, 1944. Miriam and Batya returned to Paris, and rejoined her son, Boris. In 1953, Miriam immigrated to Israel and dedicated herself to Holocaust research and commemoration. She travelled widely, gathering Holocaust related materials and testimonies. She was one of the founders of the Ghetto Fighters Museum at Kibbutz Lohamei Hageta'ot, and its first art curator.

Ignacy Gutman (1900- 1972) was born in Łódź, Poland, to Samuel (Szmul, 1862-1925) and Anna (Chana, 1868- 1936) nee Leder. In 1919, Ignacy volunteered to fight for Poland during the Polish–Soviet War. Afterward, he attended the University of Warsaw and graduated from their architecture program in 1927. In 1930, Ignacy married Sabina Stambulska, (1905-1987) a teacher, and the couple had a daughter, Monika (1932-?). Ignacy designed several modernist houses and buildings in Łódź, and was a co-owner of the architectural firm I. Gutman, L. Oli Architects, from 1935 to 1939. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. One week later, the German army occupied Łódź, renamed the city Litzmannstadt, and immediately instigated violence and anti-Semitic policies. Jews were no longer allowed to walk on sidewalks, and were often assaulted when they walked in the streets. They were forced to turn their valuables over to the authorities, and those suspected of not complying were beaten and tortured. On February 8, 1940, the Łódź ghetto was established in the older, poorer part of the city, and Ignacy and his family were forcibly relocated inside. In March and April, the Germans encircled the ghetto with a barbed wire and wood fence. Armed guards and dogs were stationed around the perimeter with orders to shoot Jews that approached the fence. While in the ghetto, Ignacy was a director of the Building Department, and arranged for his daughter to work with him in the department. Ignacy was tasked by his friend, Judenrat Chairman, Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski, to design the paper scrip (currency) that would be used in the ghetto. He completed his designs in early 1940. The scrip was printed in May and issued in the ghetto in June. The Germans ordered the Jews to exchange their remaining valuables for ghetto currency, and used it as a modest payment for their forced labor. In October, the Nazis established workshops where Jews labored 10-14 hours a day in overcrowded and poorly ventilated conditions to pay back their debt for living in the ghetto. From January to September 1942, German authorities deported over 70,000 Jews to Chelmno killing center. In August 1944, in response to advancing Soviet forces, the Germans began transporting the remaining Jews out of the ghetto, primarily to Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center. During this time, Ignacy built a bunker where he and his family hid to avoid the deportations. He was selected for the cleaning squad, a group of prisoners who confiscated materials and valuables out of the ghetto after the other prisoners had been deported. While in hiding, Ignacy contracted tuberculosis. However, he was able to survive until the ghetto was liberated by the Soviets in January 1945. After the war, Ignacy and his family stayed in Łódź, and he spent two years in sanatorium recovering from his illness. After his recovery, Ignacy worked as an architect at the Central Management of the Clothing Industry and at the City Design Office. He designed the Jewish Theatre, Public City Library, and Łódź Municipality. On February, 1958, Ignacy and his family immigrated to Israel on the SS Herzl.

The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1986 by Miriam Novitch.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Miriam Novitch

Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.