Physical Description
Rectangular green paper scrip. Front has blue geometric background and text printed in center. In the upper left corner is the serial number; in the lower left, the series number. In lower left, denomination “50” in green. In right third, a vertical band with the denomination “50” in green at the top and a six pointed star in green at the bottom. Verso has same blue geometric background. In center, a motif with a seven-branched candelabrum in green. Large text printed in green across the motif. Smaller text in green at center top and center bottom. Denomination “50” in green in three corners, upper left, upper right, lower right.
Dimensions
overall: Height: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm) | Width: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm)
Materials
overall : paper, ink
Markings
front, upper center, printed in green ink : Quittung über
front, center, in green : Fünfzig Mark
front, lower center, in green : Der Aelteste der Juden / in Litzmannstadt
front, lower right, in green : Litzmannstadt, den 15 Mai 1940
back, upper center, in green : Quittung / über
back, center, in green : Fünfzig Mark
back, lower center, in green : WER DIESE QUITTUNG VERFÄLSCHT ODER NACH. MACHT ODER GEFÄLSCHTE / QUITTUNGEN IN / VERKEHR BRINGT WIRD STRENGSTENS BESTRAFT
Contributor
Subject:
Philip Freid
Biography
Philip Freid was born May 7, 1928, in Łódź, Poland. His parents were Hersh (July 26, 1890-August 20, 1942) and Ita (nee Ogniewicz, 1890-1944). The parents operated a poultry store. The family was Jewish and Philip studied Hebrew and Polish at the Edelstein private school in Łódź. He had two older siblings, a brother, Leon (May 8, 1946-January 3, 2003), who served in the Polish Army in 1939, and a sister, Bronka (1922-1945). In 1939, the Germans occupied Łódź. Philip and his family were interned in the Łódź ghetto. His father worked collecting garbage; his mother cleaned and prepared food in a ghetto kitchen. On August 20, 1942, his father died of starvation. In 1944, the rest of the family was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Philip and his brother, Leon, were separated from their mother and sister. Their mother was selected to be killed in the gas chambers on the day the family arrived. Bronka worked in a German-run factory, as she had during the years in the ghetto. She was transferred to Stutthof concentration camp, where she was killed in January 1945. Leon would be in Auschwitz nearly a year before being transferred to Flossenbürg and Siegmar-Schonau work camp. After eight weeks, Philip was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp in Germany, and then to the Siegmar-Schonau forced labor camp, a satellite of Flossenbürg. He worked in a Waffen-SS factory making bombs. Toward the end of the war, in 1945, he was taken on a death march east to Luditz (Zlutice) in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. He was liberated there on May 7, 1945, when the guards abandoned the inmates; both American and Russian troops were operating in the area. Two days later, he set out for Łódź to search for surviving relatives. In September, he left Łódź and was smuggled from Stettin (Szczecin), Poland, into Munich, Germany, by the Bricha operation, which transferred Jews to points in Europe where they could eventually be brought to Palestine. He stayed briefly at a displaced persons camp in Munich, and then went to the Schlactlensee displaced persons camp in Berlin, where he was reunited with his brother, Leon. Philip attened the Herzl school, joined a Zionist organization, and worked in the camp post office. In 1949, the brothers emigrated to the United States, where they had an uncle. Philip served in the U.S. Army from 1950-1951, in Fort Benning, Georgia, and in Germany.
