Scheinfeld Displaced Persons Camp scrip, 10 cent note
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Width: 4.125 inches (10.478 cm)
Archival History
The currency was donated to the United Sates Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2003 by Joel Forman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Joel Forman
Scope and Content
Scrip, valued at 10 cents distributed in Scheinfeld displaced persons camp (DP) in Scheinfeld, Germany from April until July, 1946. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) team 596 issued three denominations of scrip: 10 cents, 50 cents, and 1 dollar. The scrip was used in the canteen until July, but was abandoned due to food shortages. During World War II, many Lithuanians were deported to Nazi Germany as forced laborers. Toward the end of the war, many more escaped Lithuania before the advancing Soviet army, fearing a continuation of the mass arrests and deportations the Soviets inflicted on the public during their occupation under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Consequently, after World War II, Germany had a large population of Lithuanian displaced persons (DPs). The Scheinfeld DP camp was established on April 28, 1946, by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). An agency that provided DPs with food, clothing, medicine, and helped to repatriate people to their home countries. The camp housed 1,500 Lithuanian displaced persons who had been transferred from Regensburg DP camp, and was overseen by UNRRA team 569. The camp was located on the grounds of the 17th century, Schwarzenberg castle, and included a hospital, dental clinic, sanitation office, drug store, canteen, bakery, clothing store, two restaurants, and laundry and shoe repair services. In the barrack section, a large hall held various programs, concerts, lectures, and plays. The camp was closed in the autumn of 1949. It was thought that all the notes were destroyed, until approximately 15 sets were discovered in England in the 1970s.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Scheinfeld Displaced Persons camp scrip printed in brown ink, on lightweight, rectangular, green-colored paper. The face has a thin double-line border around the perimeter. In the center, with a line of text above and below, is a large rectangle with indented corners. Centered inside is the outlined text denomination overlaying the numeric denomination. The year is printed in the lower right indented corner of the rectangle. Above and below the rectangle is a line of text. Outside each indented corner of the rectangle is numeric designation. The reverse has an identical design, but with Lithuanian text. The left side of the face has a large, circular, blue stamp with a grid, and text in the center and along the top and bottom edges. The reverse has a red stamp inside the rectangle in the lower left indented corner.
face, left of center, stamped blue ink : SCHEINFELD / UNRAA / TEAM 569 reverse, lower left center, stamped, red ink : 002572
Corporate Bodies
- Scheinfeld (Displaced persons camp)
- United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
Subjects
- Germany--History--1945-1955.
- Refugees--Lithuania.
- Refugee camps--Germany--Bavaria.
- World War, 1939-1945--Refugees.
- Paper money--Lithuania.
- Refugee camps--Economic aspects.
- Lithuania--History--German occupation, 1941-1944.
- Scheinfeld (Bavaria, Germany)
- Lithuania--History--Soviet occupation, 1940-1941.
Genre
- Exchange Media
- Money.
- Object