Mittelbau forced labor camp scrip, .01 Reichsmark note
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Width: 2.375 inches (6.033 cm)
Creator(s)
- Buchdruckerei Theodore Mueller (Printer)
Archival History
The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by Joel Forman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joel Forman
Scope and Content
Scrip (also called chits) valued at 0.01 Reichsmark, distributed to slave laborers in Mittelbau (Central Construction) concentration camp. Mittelbau (also called Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen), located near the town of Nordhausen, was originally established on August 28, 1943, as a subcamp of Buchenwald, with the codename, Dora. In response to increased Allied bombing, prisoners were forced to dig huge tunnels in the mountains, safe from aerial destruction. Inside the completed tunnels, the prisoners then constructed factories and storage areas for rocket production. Once completed, assembly line production of V-2 rockets began in late December of 1943. Both forced laborers and German civil workers worked on rocket construction. To encourage productivity on the assembly line, authorities paid the prisoners with scrip which could be exchanged for goods in the camp canteen. Nine denominations were issued: 0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 1, 2, 5, and 10 marks. In 1944, Mittelbau was converted into an independent concentration camp with over 30 subcamps of its own. On April 4, 1945, with the Allied forces approaching, the Nazis began to remove and destroy evidence of their activities. This included the evacuation of prisoners from the camp and the destruction of documentation relating to the production of the scrip. Mittelbau was liberated on April 11, 1945, by elements of the U.S. 3rd Armored and 104th Infantry Divisions.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Mittelbau scrip printed on small, square-shaped, off-white paper in black ink. The paper is watermarked with a geometric pattern and has a centered, square, hatched background with a two-line border. The series letter is printed within a small rectangular, white banner in the upper right corner. In the center are two rectangular, horizontal, off center, white banners joined jaggedly in the middle containing the camp name with three thick lines below. At the bottom is a rectangular white banner with the camp name on the left and an overlaid, bordered circle containing the numeric value on the right. On the back is a block of German text with the serial number below.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Nordhausen (Thuringia, Germany)
- Concentration camps--Paper money--Germany.
- Forced labor--Germany.
- Concentration camps--economic aspects.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Slave labor--Germany.
Genre
- Money.
- Exchange Media
- Object