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Occupation credit treasury note, 50 Reichspfennig, issued by Nazi Germany

Object | Accession Number: 2010.443.9

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    Occupation credit treasury note, 50 Reichspfennig, issued by Nazi Germany
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    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    German occupation credit treasury note, valued at 50 Reichspfennig, issued in Berlin, Germany by the Reichskreditkassen (Reich Credit Treasury Bank) for use in German occupied countries. In an effort to strengthen the economies of German occupied countries, credit treasury notes could only be used in the specific occupied country alongside the local currency. Soldiers in the German army also received their pay in credit treasury notes. The currency was recovered by Yahad-In Unum as they researched the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against the Jewish population in Eastern Europe. The organization has located hundreds of mass execution and grave sites to document this Holocaust by bullets and to allow for the respectful remembrance of the fallen.
    Date
    issue:  1939-1944
    found:  2005
    Geography
    issue: Berlin (Germany)
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Yahad-in Unum
    Markings
    face, upper center, bold large print, green ink : fünfzig Reichspfennig [five Reichspfennig]
    face, center, green ink : Ausgegeben auf Grund / der Verordnung über / Reichskreditkassen. / hauptverwaltung / der Reichskreditkassen [Issued on the basis of the Regulation on Reich Credit Offices. general administration of Reich Credit Offices]
    face, right and left within a circle, green ink : 50 / Rpf
    face, lower left, printed in a circle, green ink : Reichskreditkassenschein • [Reich credit treasury note]
    face, lower center, serial number, red ink : 182 • 972547
    face, lower right, embossed in a circle : illegible text
    back, center, large bold print, green ink : 50 / Reichspfenning
    back, left and right, printed vertically, green ink : fünfzig
    back, lower center, fine print, green ink : Geldfälschung wird mit Zuchthaus bestraft [Counterfeiting is punishable by imprisonment]
    Contributor
    Issuer: Reichskreditkasse
    Subject: Patrick Desbois
    Subject: Yahad-In Unum
    Biography
    Father Patrick Desbois is the president of Yahad- In Unum (Together as One), an organization he co-founded in 2004 to develop and promote Christian-Jewish understanding. He is also a Roman Catholic priest and director of the Episcopal Committee for Relations with Judaism, which is connected with the French Conference of Bishops.
    Father Desbois was born in Chalon-sur-Saone, France, in 1955 and grew up on a farm in the Bresse region of eastern France. As a young man, he joined the French civil service and taught mathematics in West Africa. He went to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa for three months. After this, he decided to join the priesthood, a decision that shocked his secular family. He became a parish priest and studied Judaism and learned Hebrew. He asked to do outreach work with groups such as Roma, ex-prisoners, and Jews, and was appointed a liaison with the Jewish community in France.
    His family had lived on the farm throughout the German occupation of France during World War II, 6/25/1940-8/25/1944. His paternal grandfather, as a soldier in the French Army, had been deported by the Germans following the occupation. He was sent to Rava-Ruska prison camp, then on the Ukrainian side of the Polish border, now in Ukraine. His grandfather never talked about his experiences, but he did once comment to his grandson that, as bad as it was for French prisoners-of-war, it was much worse for other types of inmates. A maternal cousin who had been a member of the resistance was deported and killed in a German concentration camp. As an adult, he learned from his mother that the family had often hidden members of the French Resistance on the farm.
    Desbois was haunted by his grandfather's silence. He made repeated trips to Rava-Ruska where his grandfather had been imprisoned. On one visit, the mayor took him to the edge of the forest where a group of elderly villagers were gathered to tell him what they had witnessed. Desbois finally learned what his grandfather would not say - that, unlike what Desbois had supposed, the killings were not done in secret. They were public spectacles, performed in broad daylight, and people wanted to be there and watch. Since 2001, Desbois has led research teams to discover the fate of Jewish victims of Nazi Germany, specifically of the Einsatzgruppen [killing squads] that operated in Eastern Europe during World War II. Based in Paris, Yahad-in Unum’s mission is to discover every mass grave and site where Jews were killed in the Ukraine. They research and compare documents from German and Soviet archives, searching for clues to locations where the killings occurred. They then travel to the villages to find witnesses who will tell them the location of the mass graves. Yahad has identified over 800 of an estimated 2000 sites. Father Desbois also seeks out and has recorded personal testimonies of hundreds of the remaining witnesses to the atrocities. As of 2015, they had recorded 4000 witness testimonies. “At first, sometimes, people don’t believe I’m a priest. I have to use simple words and listen to these horrors - without any judgment. I cannot react to the horrors that pour out. If I react, the stories will stop.”
    Yahad–In Unum was created in 2004 to facilitate understanding and collaboration between Catholics and Jews. The name of the organization is based upon the Hebrew and Latin words for together. The central reseach mission is to document the mass executions of more than 2 million Jews and thousands of Roma people in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1944 by Nazi Germany and those who collaborated with them. Through the investigation of this Holocaust by bullets, Yahad-In Unum has discovered hundreds of mass graves of murdered victims and recorded the testimony of more than 3000 witnesses. The organization works to collect the evidence, village by village, region by region, searching for the last witnesses to these crimes. Yahad-In Unum seeks to identify each grave site in order to refute those who deny the Holocaust and to allow for the respectful remembrance of the fallen.

    Physical Details

    Language
    German
    Classification
    Exchange Media
    Category
    Money
    Physical Description
    Rectangular white paper currency with a green geometric background design. The face has the denomination 50 on the right and left. There is a swastika in the center background with German text superimposed. Near the lower edge is a Reichsadler seal with a swastika and German text, a serial number in red ink, and a white embossed circular Reichsadler seal with a swastika and illegible text. The back has German text on the lower center, within an irregular vertical banner on the left and right. The denomination 50 is in the center. It is discolored with age and the lower left corner is missing.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 2.250 inches (5.715 cm) | Width: 3.500 inches (8.89 cm)
    Materials
    overall : paper, ink

    Rights & Restrictions

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

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The paper currency was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010 by Father Patrick Desbois on behalf of Yahad-in Unum.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2024-10-03 11:21:41
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn42843

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