Łódź ghetto scrip on rectangular, offwhite paper printed in black ink. On the face, the denomination 1 is in the lower right corner. There is a 1.25 inch right margin, then a bordered rectangle with a background of interlocked Stars of David resembling barbed wire; around this rectangle is a border of barbed wire links alternating with Stars of David. In the upper left corner is a large Star of David in a circle. A smaller Star of David within a black square, an uppercase letter in black, and the serial number in red ink replaces the right border. In the center is the denomination Eine Mark and German text. The back has the denomination 1 in the lower left corner. There is a 1.25 inch left margin, then a bordered rectangle with a background of interlocked Stars of David resembling barbed wire. In the center is a 7 branched menorah flanked by the denomination 1 within a set of 9 concentric rings overlaid by a banner with the denomination Eine Mark. The stained, discolored note has small tears and multiple wrinkles as if it was crumpled previously.
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The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2004 by Jacqueline White, executor fot the Estate of Robert L. White.
overall: Height: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm) | Width: 6.375 inches (16.192 cm)
1 [eine] mark 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.
Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto scrip, 1 mark note