Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 5 mark note

Object | Accession Number: 1996.60.1
1996.60.1 Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 5 mark note Click to enlarge 1996.60.1 back Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 5 mark note Click to enlarge

5 (funf) mark receipt issued in the Łódź ghetto in Poland in May 1940. Nazi Germany occupied Poland on September 1, 1939; Łódź was renamed Litzmannstadt and annexed to the German Reich. In February, the Germans forcibly relocated the large Jewish population into a sealed ghetto. All currency was confiscated in exchange for Quittungen [receipts] that could be exchanged only in the ghetto. The scrip was designed by the Judenrat [Jewish Council] and includes traditional Jewish symbols. The Germans closed the ghetto in the summer of 1944 by deporting the residents to concentration camps or killing centers.

Date
issue:  1940 May 15
Geography
issue: Litzmannstadt-Getto (Łódź, Poland); Łódź (Poland)
Language
German
Classification
Exchange Media
Category
Money
Object Type
Scrip (aat)
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Eva Mames. In Memory of John J. Mames.

About This Object

Physical Description
Offwhite rectangular paper scrip. The face has a watermark with a latticework pattern in green ink. The serial number in orange ink is in the upper left corner. The denomination 5 is in the lower left corner in bold font and in the upper right in a black square. There is a 1.75 inch left margin, then a rectangle with a curved upper left corner with a background of interlocked Jewish stars with a large Jewish star in a circle in the upper left corner in brown ink. Across the center is the textual denomination in black ink with brown highlights and German text. The back has a blank 1.75 inch margin, then a rectangle with a pattern of interlocked Stars of David in brown ink. There is German text in the upper left corner and a 7-branched candelabrum in the lower left corner. The denomination 5 in bold font, black and brown ink, is outside the border at the lower left corner; above this, near the upper right corner, is a Star of David outline in a black square.
Dimensions
overall: Height: 2.875 inches (7.302 cm) | Width: 5.000 inches (12.7 cm)
Materials
overall : paper, ink, adhesive
Markings
face, serial number, orange ink : Nº
face, upper right, black ink : Quittung / über [Receipt for about]
face, center, bold font, black ink : Fünf Mark [Five Mark]
face, bottom, black ink : Der Aelteste der Juden / in Litzmannstadt / M. Rumkowski / Litzmannstadt , den 15 Mai 1940 [The Eldest of the Jews / M. Rumkowski / on May 15, 1940]
back, black ink : Quittung / über / fünf Mark [Receipt for about five mark]
back, bottom, black ink : WER DIESE QUITTUNG VERFÄLSCHT ODER NACHMACHT ODER GEFÄLSCHTE / QUITTUNGEN IN VERKEHR BRINGT / WIRD STRENGSTENS BESTRAFT [ANYONE WHO FALSIFIES OR COPIES THIS RECEIPT, OR TRAFFICS IN COUNTERFEIT RECEIPTS, WILL BE STRICTLY PUNISHED]

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1996 by Eva Mames.

Rights and Restrictions

Conditions on Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use
No restrictions on use

 
Record last modified: 2022-09-13 16:00:52
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn11696