Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 50 pfennig note

The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1987 by the Zydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma. 

Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 50 pfennig note 

overall: Height: 2.125 inches (5.398 cm) | Width: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) 

50 [funfzig] pfennig receipt issued in the Łódź ghetto in Poland beginning in May 1940 until the ghetto was liquidated in summer 1944. Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and occupied Łódź one week later. Łódź was renamed Litzmannstadt and, by February 1940, the Germans forcibly relocated the large Jewish population of 160,000 into a small, sealed ghetto. All residents had to work and many were forced laborers in ghetto factories. Residents were forbidden to have German currency, and the Jewish Council was ordered to create a system of Quittungen [receipts] that could be used only in the ghetto. The scrip, sometimes referred to as rumkis, after the Elder of the Judenrat, Mordechai Rumkowski, was issued in 7 denominations: 50 pfenning, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 marks, as well as coins. It acted as a labor incentive and facilitated the confiscation of money and goods from internees. There was little to exchange it for in the ghetto. Living conditions were horrendous; the severe overcrowding and lack of food made disease and starvation common. In January 1942, mass deportations to Chelmno killing center began; half the residents were murdered by the end of the year. In summer 1944, Łódź, the last ghetto in Poland, was destroyed and the remaining Jews were sent to Chelmno and Auschwitz-Birkenau killing centers. 

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Łódź ghetto scrip on offwhite rectangular paper printed with black and purple ink. The face has a background of interlocked Stars of David resembling barbed wire. The denomination 50 within a purple square is in the lower left and upper right corners. A Star of David within a purple square is in the upper left and lower right corners. In the center is a 7 branched menorah overlaid with the denomination 50 PFENNIG, with German text above and below. The back has a background of interlocked Stars of David resembling barbed wire with the denomination 50 in the upper corners. In the center is the denomination FUNFZIG PFENNIG, the serial number in red ink, and German text. The scrip is extremely worn and faded, with a large peice of tape on the back.