Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 20 mark note
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 3.125 inches (7.938 cm) | Width: 6.250 inches (15.875 cm)
Creator(s)
- Der Aelteste der Juden in Litzmannstadt (Issuer)
Archival History
The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by the Estate of Robert L. White.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Estate of Robert L. White
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 in Poland beginning in May 1940 until the ghetto was liquidated in summer 1944. Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and occupied Łódź one week later. Łódź was renamed Litzmannstadt and, by February 1940, the Germans forcibly relocated the large Jewish population of 160,000 into a small, sealed ghetto. All residents had to work and many were forced laborers in ghetto factories. Residents were forbidden to have German currency, and the Jewish Council was ordered to create a system of Quittungen [receipts] that could be used only in the ghetto. The scrip, sometimes referred to as rumkis, after the Elder of the Judenrat, Mordechai Rumkowski, was issued in 7 denominations: 50 pfenning, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 marks, as well as coins. It acted as a labor incentive and facilitated the confiscation of money and goods from internees. There was little to exchange it for in the ghetto. Living conditions were horrendous; the severe overcrowding and lack of food made disease and starvation common. In January 1942, mass deportations to Chelmno killing center began; half the residents were murdered by the end of the year. In summer 1944, Łódź, the last ghetto in Poland, was destroyed and the remaining Jews were sent to Chelmno and Auschwitz-Birkenau killing centers.
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 resembling barbed wire 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 the same 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 extremely worn, soiled, and torn.
Corporate Bodies
- Litzmannstadt-Getto (Łódź, Poland)
Subjects
- Łódź (Poland)
- Jewish ghettos--Economic aspects--Poland--Łódź.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Economic conditions.
- Tokens--Poland--Łódź.
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland--Łódź--Money.
- Poland--History--Occupation, 1939-1945--Economic aspects.
Genre
- Money
- Exchange Media
- Object