Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Westerbork voucher, value 25 cents, acquired by Harry Goldsmith. This scrip was issued in Westerbork transit camp beginning February 15, 1944. Inmates were not allowed to have currency, which was confiscated. The vouchers [gutschein] were distributed as an incentive for doing work in four denominations: 10, 25, 50, and 100 cents. Netherlands was occupied by Germany in May 1940. The camp, in northeast Holland, was originally set up by the Dutch in 1939 to intern Jewish refugees. In July 1942, the German security police and the SS turned it into a transit camp to hold prisoners before deporting them to concentration camps in the east, where most perished. From July 1942 - September 3, 1944. nearly 200,000 Jews were deported from the camp. Most inmates had short stays at the camp. However, there were about 2000 longterm detainees who helped run the camp or were exempt from deportation. The vouchers were used with this population, most of whom were deported before the camp was liberated on April 12, 1945.
- Date
-
issue:
1944 February 15
- Geography
-
issue:
Westerbork (Concentration camp);
Westerbork (Netherlands)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Estate of Harry Goldsmith
- Markings
- front, upper left and lower right, red ink : 25 / CENT
front, upper center, red ink : LAGER / WESTERBORK / GUTSCHEIN [Camp Westerbork Coupon]
reverse, center, white with brown border : 25
reverse, lower left, red ink : LAGER WESTERBORK. / 15 FEBRUAR 1944
reverse, center, red ink : DIESER GUTSCHEIN / IST NUR INNERHALB / DES LAGERS GÜLTIG [This coupon is only valid within the camp]
reverse, lower right, red ink : DER LAGERKOMMANDANT / AK Gemmeker / SS OBERSTURMFüHRER [Camp commander AK Gemmeker SS First Lieutenant]
reverse, center, bottom edge, post production?, black ink : K 1227
Physical Details
- Language
- German
- Classification
-
Exchange Media
- Category
-
Money
- Object Type
-
Scrip (aat)
- Genre/Form
- Money
- Physical Description
- Westerbork scrip on rectangular white paper in purple and pink ink. The face has 4 corner squares and 2 center rectangles in outline with a basket weave background. The denomination 25 CENT is in the upper left and lower right squares. The upper rectangle has the camp logo and the lower rectangle has a drawing of the camp featuring the tall laundry chimneys. The reverse has the brown weave background with 2 outlined squares in the upper corners. In the center is an underprint of the denomination 25. Across the top center is a narrow silhouetted image of the camp landscape inserted through the center of a toothed gear wheel, with German text, an issue date, and a signature below. The serial letter and number are stamped across the center.
- Dimensions
- overall: Height: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Width: 4.125 inches (10.478 cm)
- Materials
- overall : paper, ink
- Inscription
- reverse, center, stamped, black ink : Serie CC No 5423
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by Kenneth and Ellen Goldsmith, on behalf of the Estate of Harry Goldsmith.
- 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:
- 2023-06-06 14:12:31
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn774
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