History Forum / General / General Topics / September 2007

Concentration Camp Money
Lagergeld Used to Pay Prisoners for Their Work
By Jennifer White

Far from being the "death camps" as you have heard so often, places like
Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald were not in the business of extermination.
They were work camps, critical to the German war effort. But did you know
that the Jewish workers were compensated for their labor with scrip printed
specifically for their use in stores, canteens and even brothels? The
prisoner monetary system was conceived in ghettos such as Lodz, carried to
camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau and still existed in the displaced
persons camps that were established by the Allies after World War II. Here
is the story of the money the court historians do not want you to even
suspect existed.
Piles of incinerated corpses were indicting images at Nuremberg, used to
prove that the German-run concentration camps during World War II were
intended for purposes of exterminating the Jews of Europe. However, a
plethora of documentary evidence, long suppressed, shows that prisoners were
relatively well-treated, compensated for their hard work and allowed to
purchase luxuries to which even the German public did not have ready access.
This is not the image of abject deprivation that the Holocaust lobby would
like you to entertain.
The irrefutable proof is the existence of a means of exchange for goods and
services: Money. There were at least 134 separate issues, in different
denominations and styles, for such notorious places as Auschwitz,
Buchenwald, Dachau, Oranienburg, Ravensbrück, Westerbork and at least 15
other camps. (See Paper Money of the World Part I: Modern Issues of Europe
by Arnold Keller, Ph.D., 1956, pp. 23-25 for a complete listing.)
A monetary system was also in existence in the ghettos, most notably
Theriesenstadt and Lodz, which produced beautiful notes (veritable works of
art) that make U.S. currency look dull.
There are numerous dealers in rare currency and numismatics who specialize
in selling "concentration camp money" or "Holocaust money" as it has been
sometimes called. But the very fact of its existence does not seem to have
raised questions-as it should have-about what really did (and did not)
happen inside the so-called "death camps" where the Holocaust scrip was
circulating in the first place.
This scrip was not negotiable outside of the camp for which it was issued.
This decreased the chance of a successful escape and made it impossible for
the general public to purchase some of the rare luxuries available in the
camps. According to Albert Pick in Das Lagergeld der Konzentrations-und
D.P.-Lager: 1933-1945:
Inmates were not paid for the work but were given "coupons" now and then to
buy things in the "Kantine". . . . As the war progressed badly and the
number of workers declined, the KZ worker potential became important. Offers
of "premiums" and other advantages were made to the inmates, tobacco was
offered and even visits to bordellos. . . . In order that these scrips could
not be used outside the camps, special money was printed.
Letter from Prisoner No. 11647 Block 28/3 Dachau KIII on September 8, 1940
to his relative in Litzmannstadt (Lodz):
I must write you something about myself. I am very well. In the canteen I
buy honey, marmalade, cookies, fruit and other food. If you worry about me,
you'll indeed be committing a sin. I have more reason to worry about you. .
. . (Letters from the Doomed: Concentration Camp Correspondence 1940-1945,
Richard S. Geehr.)

There was a payment schedule at Theresienstadt utilizing Th. kr. (There
sienstadt kroner) as the unit of exchange. (The Shekel Vol. XVI, No. 2,
March-April 1983 p. 29). The breakdown looked like this:
. Working men, according to their jobs: 105-205 Th. kr.
. Working women, according to their jobs: 95-205 Th. kr.
. Part-time workers: 80 Th. kr.
. Caretakers: 70 Th. kr.
. War-wounded and holders of the Iron Cross, First Class degree or higher:
195 Th. kr.
. Prominente (doctors, professors, scientists, well-known cultural artists
and politicians): 145 Th. kr.
To put this in perspective, a cup of coffee cost 2 Th. kr. The circulation
in The resienstadt was such that it was necessary to print over 5 million
notes. See Papirove Penize Na Uzemi Ceskosloven ska 1762-1975, Second
Edition, 1975, Hradek Kralove, trans. by Julius Sem, pp. 134-135.
The first worker's camp to have its own scrip was Oranienburg. Before using
the camp scrip they used German currency in nearby towns, but the
authorities decided to centralize. Currency was exchanged for camp money,
less 30%. (The Shekel, Vol XVI, No. 2, March-April 1983, p. 40.
"Concentration Camp Money of the Nazi Holocaust" by Steven Feller.)
Similarly at Buchenwald:
Each prisoner was allowed up to 10 marks per week to be used for the
purchase of cigarettes at the camp canteen, other canteen purchases, brothel
visits, or credit to a savings account. The regulations went on to specify
that a visit to a brothel would cost 2 marks for which 1.5 marks would be
kept by the SS and 0.5 marks would be used for "expenses." (Ibid., p. 41.)
Was there a similar situation at all of the other camps-at least those that
issued currency? As this includes Auschwitz, it would be shocking indeed to
even consider marmalade and cigarettes being purchased in this "death camp."
Even the existence of money in camps gives us a look at what life was really
like there, yet this information has yet to make it to the History Channel.
Bibliography
American Israel Numismatic Association (Temarac, Florida)
Pick, Albert. Das Lagergeld der Konzentrations-und D.P.-Lager: 1993-1945,
Munich, Battenberg Publishers, 1976.
Schöne, Michael H., Das Papiergeld im besetzten Deutschland 1945-1949,
Regenstauf: Gietl, 1994.
Stahl, Zvi, Jewish Ghettos and Concentration Camps' Money, 1933-1945,
London: D. Richman Books, 1990.
See also:
Campbell, Lance K., Dachau concentration camp scrip, Margate, Florida:
American Israel Numismatic Association, 1992.
The Numismatist, April, 1981, by Steven Feller.
Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, 1965, 1996, "POW Money and Medals" by
Slabaugh, R. Arlie.
Schultze, Manfred, Unsere Arbeit-unsere Hoffnung: Das Ghetto in Lodz
1940-1945, Schwalmtal: Phil-Creativ, 1995.
Sem, Julius, Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, 1977 (Thereisenstadt
notes)
Shtarot, Vol. I, No. 2, Oct, 1976. Yasha L. Beresiner.
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