Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp scrip, 2 kronen note, belonging to a German Jewish inmate

Object | Accession Number: 2016.496.5

2016.496.5 front
Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp scrip, 2 kronen note, belonging to a German Jewish inmate

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Date: 1943 January 01 (issue)
Geography: issue : Theresienstadt (Concentration camp); Terezin (Ustecky kraj, Czech Republic)
Language: German
Classification: Exchange Media
Category: Money
Object Type: Scrip (aat)
Genre/Form: Money.
Credit Line: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Irene Frank

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Physical Description: Theresienstadt scrip printed on rectangular, off-white paper in red ink. On the face is a rectangle with geometric patterning and a wide, off-white margin to the right. On the left, within the rectangle, is a vignette with an image of Moses holding 2 stone tablets inscribed with the 10 Commandments in Hebrew. To his right, is the denomination centered between lines of German text. In the lower right corner is a Star of David with the denomination below. The reverse has a rectangle with geometric patterning and a wide, off-white margin to the left. Centered within the rectangle is German text above and below a scrollwork line, the denomination on the upper right, and signature on the lower right. In the lower left corner is the denomination below a Star of David in a striped circle. The plate letter and number are in the upper left corner. The paper is worn throughout with blue staining along the bottom edge. The corners are folded and there is heavy creasing at the center and ends.
Dimensions: overall : 2.125 x 4.250 in. (5.398 x 10.795 cm.)
Materials: overall : paper, ink
Markings: face, center, printed, red ink : QUITTUNG ÜBER / ZWEI KRONEN / 2 / WER DIESE QUITTUNG VERFÄLSCHT ODER NACHMACHT / ODER GEFÄLSCHTE QUITTUNGEN IN VERKEHR BRINGT, / WIRD STRENGSTENS BESTRAFT. [Receipt / of / TWO CROWNS / ANYONE WHO FALSIFIES OR DISTORTS OR FAKES THIS RECEIPT, OR COUNTERFEITS RECEIPT, WILL BE STRICTLY PUNISHED]
face, lower right corner, printed red ink : 2
reverse, upper left corner, plate letter and number, printed red ink : A023
reverse, upper right and lower left corners, printed, red ink : 2
reverse, center, printed, red ink : Quittung / über / ZWEI KRONEN / THERESIENSTADT, AM 1.JÄNNER 1943 DER ALTESTE DER JUDEN / IN THERESIENSTADT / Jakob Edelstein [Receipt / of / TWO CROWNS / THERESIENSTADT, ON 1. JANUARY 1943 THE ELDER OF THE JEWS IN THERESIENSTADT / Jakob Edelstein]
Contributor: Subject: Henry Frank
Designer: Peter Kien
Printer: National Bank of Prague
‪Issuer: Der Alteste der Juden in Theresienstadt
Biography: Henry Frank (1918-2002) was born Heinz Frankenstein in Berlin to Jacob and Anna Frankenstein. They were a poor Jewish family in Berlin. Jacob was disabled from injuries sustained during his World War I service, making it difficult for him to earn a living. Under Nazi rule, Henry was forced to work eleven hours a day on a construction crew but following the start of the war in September 1939, he was moved to a war supplies factory. Following the assassination of General Reinhardt Heydrich in Prague on May 27, 1942, Jacob Frankenstein was among 50 Jewish men in Berlin who were rounded up by the Gestapo, taken to Sachsenhausen, lined up against a brick wall, and shot. The following day, the Gestapo deported Henry, his mother, and his sister Ingeborg to Theresienstadt. Henry spent about a year at the Wulkow labor camp, where he built barracks for Gestapo officers. In 1944, construction was halted as the Russians advanced, and Henry was sent back to Theresienstadt, where he discovered that his mother and sister Irene were no longer there. They were both killed at Auschwitz. His sister Gerda and her family were killed in Riga.

A month later, Henry was sent to Bavaria with a group of 40 men to build Gestapo lodgings. As the Allied forces closed in, he and his co-workers were sent on a forced march back to Theresienstadt that lasted a week. Back at the camp, he was reunited with his sister Inge, whom he did not recognize. Not long after, the International Red Cross took over administration of the camp, and then the Russians liberated the camp.

Following the war, Henry was in the Deggendorf displaced persons camp. He immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Marine Flasher in June 1946. Henry’s sister Dorothea (Thea) Jastrow survived the war in Scotland, and she and her family immigrated to the United States after the war, along with their sister Inge.

Franz Peter Kien was born January 1, 1919, in Varnsdorf, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic), to Leonard and Olga Frankl Kien. His father Leonard was born in 1886, in Varnsdorf, and was a member of the German-speaking Jewish population in the, the Sudetenalnd, which bordered Germany. Leonard was a textile manufacturer with his own factory. Peter’s mother Olga was born in 1898, in Bzenec, Austro-Hungary (Czech Republic), to Jewish parents. After 1929, the Kien family moved to Brno. Peter enrolled at the German Gymnasium, where he excelled at drawing, painting, and writing. In 1936, he graduated and moved to Prague to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. He also attended the Officina Pragensis, a private graphic design school run by a well-known Jewish artist, Hugo Steiner-Prag.

On September 29, 1938, Germany annexed the Sudetenland. On March 15, 1939, Germany invaded Prague and annexed the Bohemia and Moravia provinces of Czechoslovakia, ruled by a Reich Protector. Jews were banned from participation in government, businesses, and organization, including schools. Peter had to leave the Academy, but continued to study at the Officina Pragensis. He also taught at Vinohrady Synagogue. In September 1940, Peter married Ilse Stranska, who was born on May 9, 1915, in Pilsen, to Jewish parents.

In late September 1941, Heydrich, the SS head of RSHA, Reich Main Security Office, became Reich Protector. Soon there were regular deportations of Jews to concentration camps. At the end of November, Theresienstadt concentration and transit camp near Prague got its first shipment of Jewish prisoners. On December 14, Peter was transported to Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp. He was assigned to the technical department where he worked as a draftsman and designer alongside other artists, including Bedrich Fritta, Leo Haas, and Jiri Lauscher. On July 16, 1942, Peter’s wife Ilse arrived in the camp. On January 30, 1943, Peter’s parents Leonard and Olga were transported from Bzenec to Terezin. Peter was assigned major projects by the Jewish Council that administered the camp for the Germans, such as the scrip receipts used in place of money in the camp. He secretly documented the inmate’s daily life, creating portraits and other drawings, and wrote plays, poems, and an operatic libretto. On October 16, 1944, Peter’s wife Ilse and his parents Leonard and Olga were selected for deportation. Peter volunteered to go with them. Before leaving, Peter and his family were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp in German occupied Poland. Peter survived the selection process, soon fell ill, likely with typhus and died, age 25, in late October 1944. His wife and parents were killed at Auschwitz. Some of the work that Peter left with other prisoners or hid at Theresienstadt survived and has been exhibited worldwide.
Topical Term: Paper money--Czech Republic--Terezín (Ústecký kraj)
Jewish ghettos--Economic aspects.
Concentration camps--Czechoslovakia.
Jews--Germany--Berlin.
Forced labor--Germany.
Geographic Name: Terezín (Ústecký kraj, Czech Republic)
Wulkow (Germany)
Berlin (Germany)
Corporate Name: Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
Wulkow (Concentration camp)
Deggendorf (Displaced persons camp)
Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Provenance: The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by Irene Frank.
Conditions on Access: No restrictions on access
Conditions on Use: No restrictions on use
: Record last modified: 2019-02-11 07:01:13
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn561079

Also in This Collection

Irene and Henry Frank papers

Document

The Irene and Henry Frank papers include correspondence, biographical materials, photographs, and Theresienstadt and Deggendorf materials documenting Irene and Henry Frank from Berlin, their survival in concentration and labor camps during the Holocaust, and their immigration to the United States in 1946. Correspondence primarily consists of messages from Henry’s mother, Anna, in Theresienstadt to Henry at the Wulkow labor camp. Biographical materials include identification papers and certificates documenting the experiences of Henry and Irene Frank and her grandmother, Belsora Silberstein, in concentration, labor, and displaced persons camps.