us-005578-irn520808-irn522935
date: 1940 May 15
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Rectangular off-white paper note printed in green/brown ink with black and brown text. The front has a green 6 pointed Star of David patterned background layered over a green swirl pattern. The numerical denomination, 20, is in the in lower left and upper right corners. There is a green Star of David in a circle in the upper middle; the serial number is in the upper left corner. The reverse has a green Star of David background with a Star of David border in the upper right corner within a black square. There is text on the top left, a candelabrum on the bottom left, and a 20 in the bottom right.
type: RecordSet
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has record set type: Item
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn520808-irn522935/acquisitions/1
title: Łódź ghetto scrip, 20 mark note
identifier: irn522935
scope and content: Scrip acquired by 22 year-old Steffa (Shifra) Horowitz Mairanz (Marjanc) from family members who lived in the Jewish ghetto in Łódź, Poland. Steffa, her husband, and their infant daughter, who was born April 12, 1940, lived in hiding in different towns near Łódź to avoid being interned in any ghettos. Steffa managed to smuggle several family members out of the Łódź ghetto before it was destroyed by the Germans in 1944.
record resource extent: overall: Height: 3.120 inches (7.925 cm) | Width: 6.250 inches (15.875 cm)
is or was included in: us-005578-irn520808
biographical history: Steffa (Shifra) Horowitz was born February 3, 1921 in Rzeszów, Poland to Rabbi Tuvia Horowitz and Ita Spira. In 1932, she moved with her family to Sanok, Poland, where her father became the town rabbi. Steffa had three siblings: Menachem Mendel, Malka, and Rivka (b. 1936). In December 1938, Shifra married Nechemia (Tadek) Majranc (later Mairanz), born May 29, 1908. He was a rabbinical student from Łódź, who came from a wealthy family of Gerer Chasidim. The young couple moved to Łódź, but went to Kraków before the establishment of the Łódź ghetto in January 1940, following the German occupation of Poland in September 1939. They lived with Steffa’s cousin in Kraków, where she gave birth to their first child, Miriam Dvora (Marilka), on April 12, 1940. The family continued to move around in Poland, leaving places before the ghettos were established. They returned to Sanok where Steffa met friends who were working for the Polish underground and she began acting as a courier. Steffa always brought Marilka with her on underground business, both to protect her daughter and to appear less suspicious. When they heard that a ghetto was to be established in Sanok, Steffa and her family decided to go into hiding. They were able to secure false papers with new names: Shifra became Steffa; Nechemia became Tadek, and Miriam, Marilka, and they moved to Rzeszow. Steffa paid for expenses by selling her engagement ring and from 1940-1942, she worked as a chambermaid in local hotels. Her husband, Tadek, who could not pass for a Pole, hid for these two years inside a closet in their apartment. Steffa found hiding places for her parents and three siblings and made plans to get them out of the Łódź ghetto in 1942. Her parents, who spoke no Polish, managed to get papers from the Agudath Israel organization to escape to Hungary. They left on foot, leaving their younger children with a Polish friend in Sanok, until Steffa could retrieve them. They escaped through a forest, but were for…
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn520808-irn522935/alternateIDs/1
archival history: The Lodz ghetto scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Theodore Mairanz and Ita Mond, the children of Steffa and Tadek Mairanz.
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had some members with language: deu