Holocaust coinage... dark chapter in history

Coin with a dark chapter in history.

World War II. Littmanstadt (Lodz), Poland. Jewish ghetto 10 mark. Aluminium. Lightly circulated. Scarce. Ex Steve Album.

One of the largest ghettos in Europe during the Nazi occupation, these Jewish ghettos introduced the use of a coinage used and circulated within the camp. All personal effects were confiscated and thus these were the only legal currency available to them. Needless to say they are worthless outside and stopped circulating upon Germany's defeat at the end of the war. Given they are of soft material, many were badly worn or damaged.

 

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There is much sadder history to this. In some of the examples that I have seen, they look like they have been in a fire. From my understanding, as some were struck in aluminum-magnesium alloy, by setting them on fire can generate some heat. Whether this is true or not, I can only imagine this could have been done in during harsh winter.

I believe I have somewhere in my collection but was advised by a Polish collector that mine was a counterfeit. Unfortunately this is one of the more popular coins to be counterfeited...

 

You would need to file the coin into particulate size to get a combustible material. Its about increasing surface area and decreasing thermal conductivity. Throwing a complete coin into an existing fire, to generate heat..........sounds apocryphal. But using the ground down metal to initiate or briefly increase the heat of a fire sounds plausible.

 

The worst part of that particular ghetto was the fact that the Nazi sponsored Jewish administration was complicit in very many of the crimes against humanity there.

The design of this particular token was changed from an earlier design that @gxseries noted were made in a magnesium/aluminum alloy that closely resembled the German 10 reichspfennig which was why the design was changed.

 

I am aware these are highly counterfeited. Thus I did some thorough research on the tell tale signs.. such as the way the stars look and the positioning of the Ghetto on the star. Also best to gather from someone like Steve Album for assurance.

 

I never heard of a Jewish metal currency in the camps, so please let me see if I understand.
These coins were minted by Jews within their ghettos?
Did they have (or need) the permission of the German gov't?
They were used exclusively within the ghetto?
When forced into camps, some Jews were able to smuggle these coins into the camps?
The coins were used primarily to encourage or generate heat?

Sorry, but, I want to be sure I understand what I read above.
Thank you.

 

When the jews were forced into these camps, all their money and material belongings were confiscated. These were not death camps but rather ghettos where the jews were forced into a kind of communal camp. Since they have no money, the camp administrators like this one came out with their own internal camp currency which can only be used within the camp itself. Think of it like a voucher or token system in exchange for goods and services within the camp itself

 

Interesting coin, my first time ever hearing about these.

 

If you want to buy one of those, be careful. As mentioned here (and in other topics about these coins; do a forum search for "Litzmannstadt"), there are lots of counterfeits out there. Obviously anything Nazi or Holocaust related attracts some collectors, so these too have been copied a lot. And who knows, maybe in these cases it is legitimate to say that a "copy" does the same job as an original piece ...

Christian

 

Oh! Not the death camps.
You're saying those coins were used
exclusively in the Jewish ghettos.
which were, of course,
as you correctly refer to them,
pre-death camps
not voluntary segregated
limited life/work existence.

I was reading a horrific article
about one day when Jewish lawyers in Germany went to court to work only to find out
they were no longer allowed
to be lawyers.
May have been on or about
April 7, 1933 with The Law on the Admission to the Legal Profession which forbid the admission of Jews to the bar.

 

Lodz was a working camp - cheap slave labour that produced uniforms and equipment for the Wehrmacht. It was the main reason the camp continued on into 1944 when most of the other camps were being cleaned out and essentially bulldozed to cover up the atrocities of the fascists.

Similarly Terezin or Theriesenstadt was a transit camp ~ and a so called model camp that the Germans let the International Red Cross inspect, which is probably why the camp had the krone denominated money printed. It is doubted at that camp that the money was actually used there though - it was basically a prop for the Red Cross to see.

In the last month I have read "The Zookeepers Wife" about Antonina and Jan Zabinski, also have read about Irena Sendler "In the name of the children" and Madeleine Albright's autobiography. The first two books have accounts of the Warsaw ghetto while the last goes into some detail about Theresienstadt as some of Albright's family were transited through there on the way to the death camps. I would recommend reading all three of these.

 

Beginning mainly in the 1970s when a lot of fantasy pieces were also made like the Channel Islands tokens. There are even fantasies of coinage with Hitler's image on them - though there was a pattern coin created ca. 1942 but none were ever circulated.

 

This book is an interesting source on the Litzmannstadt currency. It's both a history and a catalog

 

Another fine example to add to your collection! I didn't know you played in this timeframe and part of the world.

 

Great thread Loong Siew. The Polish people probably suffered more than any other during the war.

 

In the Lodz (or Litzmannstadt) ghetto, was also printed and used paper money.

See this thread

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ghetto-notes.221617/

petronius

 

Can you tell by these photos if this coin is authentic?

 

Thanks.. I do collect moderns too particularly those that tell a story. WWII is another major segment in history which I enjoy to research thoroughly so needless to say I collect a number of stuff from that period as well.

 

Can't see very clearly.. but a few signs to look out for..

1. The word ghetto should be clearly resting on top of the star without margins. Fakes have a margin and border that separates both which yours doesn't
2. The legends and characters should not have a sharp edge.
3. The stars on the reverse should look more like a Star of David albeit soft rays.
4. There should be 2 dots above the word "Uber" on the center of the obverse. Those stars should not be sharp squares.

 

Never seen these before..interesting