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Łódź ghetto scrip, 5 mark note

Object | Accession Number: 1989.9.1
1989.9.1 front Łódź ghetto scrip, 5 mark note Click to enlarge 1989.9.1 back Łódź ghetto scrip, 5 mark note Click to enlarge

5 mark note receipt created in the Łódź ghetto in Poland, renamed Litzmannstadt by the German authorities following their occuaption of the city in 1939. When the Germans transferred Jews to the ghetto, they confiscated all currency in exchange for Quittungen [receipts] that could be spent only inside the ghetto. The scrip was designed by the Judenrat [Jewish Council] and includes traditional Jewish symbols.

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 Leon Weliczer Wells

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
Markings
face, upper right corner, printed, black ink : 5
face lower left corner, printed black and orange ink : 5
face, rectangle upper left corner, printed, black ink : Quittung / über [Receipt for]
face, center, printed, black and orange ink : Fünf Mark [Five Marks]
face, bottom, printed, black ink : Der Aelteste der Juden / in Litzmannstadt / M. Rumkowski / Litzmannstadt, den 15 Mai 1940 [Receipt for five marks / The Elder of the Jews in Litzmannstadt M. Rumkowski / Litzmannstadt, 15 May 1940]
reverse, upper left corner, printed black ink : Quittung über / Fünf Mark [Reciept for five marks]
reverse, bottom, printed, 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]
reverse, lower right, printed, black and orange ink : 5
Inscription
face, upper left corner, stamped, red ink : No 739627

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Leon Wells.

Rights and Restrictions

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

 
Record last modified: 2022-07-28 21:56:04
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1332