Republic of Czechoslovakia currency, 1 korunu note, acquired by a Jewish Polish survivor

Beno Helmer was born in 1923 in Teplice-Sanov, Czechoslovakia, to Isaak and Dora Helmer. As a young man, Beno used his foreign language skills to land small movie roles. He and his family attempted to settle in Hungary. In 1939, because they did not have legal immigration papers, they were deported to Łódź, Poland. In February 1940, the German authorities set up a ghetto where Beno and his family and all Jewish residents were forced to move. In 1942, Beno had to perform forced labor outside the ghetto. Through an underground contact, he got a job under a false identity, posing as a non-Jewish German. He assisted the resistance by collecting information. He also helped commit acts of sabotage, and became an expert at derailing trains. Beno returned to the ghetto when his father became sick. He remained with his family until they were deported. In spring 1944, the Łódź ghetto was liquidated and the family was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Beno was separated from his family. He was sent to a series of German concentration camps, including a subcamp of Gross-Rosen associated with the metalworks factory, Krupp Bertha-Werk, at Laskowitz-Meleschwitz, then to Buchenwald, and to Ludwigslust, a subcamp of Neuengamme. He was liberated by American soldiers while in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp. In an attempt to get back to Poland, he joined a Polish forced labor group that was later drafted into the Soviet Army. The war ended in early May 1945 when Germany surrendered. All of Beno's family was killed, except one sister, who he found after the war. He spent time hunting for Nazi war criminals. Beno remained in Europe for several years, but eventually immigrated to the United States

The bank note was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by Beno Helmer.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Beno Helmer

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