us-005578-irn597398-irn625794
type: RecordSet
archival history: The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Gail Scherer, the daughter-in-law of Emanuel Scherer.
biographical history: Emanuel Scherer (1901-1977) was born in Krakow, Austria-Hungary (now Poland), to Jewish parents. He also had multiple younger siblings. During this time, Jews comprised almost a quarter of the Krakow population and Emanuel became familiar with Yiddish culture as a child. He attended the gymnasium of St. Jacka in Krakow, a classical school founded in 1857. He went on to earn a law degree from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. As a student, Emanuel had joined the Jewish Labor Bund, a social-democratic organization devoted to strengthening Yiddish culture and socialist values through their network of schools and cultural and fraternal institutions. The Bund was founded in 1897, to organize opposition to repression of Jewish workers in Russia, and was generally hostile to Zionism and Communism. Emanuel joined the Central Committee of Krakow’s Bundist youth movement. In 1930, he moved to Warsaw and joined the Warsaw Committee, and was the youngest man elected to the Central Committee in 1935. In 1938, he was elected to the Warsaw City Council, and worked as Secretary of the Trade Union of Office Workers. Emanuel worked as co-editor for multiple Bundist publications, also contributing numerous articles and essays. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded western Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany. Around the same time, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland, under a nonaggression pact (the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact) with Germany. During the Blitzkrieg (lightning war), German forces defeated the Polish, and by the end of the month, Warsaw had surrendered. The Germans terrorized the Polish people, shooting thousands of civilians and requiring men to participate in forced labor. They also aimed to destroy Polish political, religious, and intellectual leadership. Beginning in May 1940, the Germans enacted a plan, called AB-Aktion, to swiftly kill Polish leaders and intellectuals in Warsaw, including those in Jewish roles. Shortly after the war began, …
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Theresienstadt scrip printed on rectangular, off-white paper in green ink. On the face is a rectangle with geometric patterning and a wide, off-white margin to the right. On the left, within the rectangle, is a vignette with an image of Moses holding 2 stone tablets inscribed with the 10 Commandments in Hebrew. To his right, is the denomination centered between lines of German text. In the lower right corner is a Star of David with the denomination below. The reverse has a rectangle with geometric patterning and a wide, off-white margin to the left. Centered within the rectangle is German text above and below a scrollwork line, denomination on the upper right, and signature on the lower right. In the lower left corner is the denomination below a Star of David in a striped circle. The plate letter and number are in the upper left corner. There is heavy overall creasing and wear, and small tears along the edges.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: after 1943 May-before 1945 May 09
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: heb
has or had subject: 003635
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn625794
is or was included in: us-005578-irn597398
record resource extent: overall: Height: 2.000 inches (5.08 cm) | Width: 4.000 inches (10.16 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Scrip, valued at 1 krone, distributed in Theresienstadt (Terezin) ghetto-labor camp, and acquired post-war by Emanuel Scherer, a Jewish refugee and activist from Krakow, Poland. In Theresienstadt, currency was confiscated from inmates and replaced with scrip, which could only be used in the camp, and had no real monetary value. As a law student at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Emanuel joined the Jewish Labor Bund. It was a social-democratic organization devoted to strengthening Yiddish culture and socialist values through their network of schools and cultural and fraternal institutions. In 1930, he moved to Warsaw and joined the Warsaw Committee. In 1935, he was elected to the Central Committee. In 1938, he was elected to the Warsaw City Council, and worked as Secretary of the Trade Union of Office Workers. Emanuel worked as co-editor for multiple Bundist publications, and also contributed numerous articles and essays. Shortly after Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Emanuel, his wife, and their infant son escaped to Vilno (in modern-day Lithuania), and immigrated to Sweden. They eventually made their way east, ending up in Japan. In April 1941, they sailed from Japan to the San Francisco, California, under false identities, eventually settling in New York. In 1943, Emanuel became the Bund representative to the Polish National Council in London, England, where the Polish government operated in exile. In 1946, he returned to his family in New York and worked with the Bund until his death.
title: Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp scrip, 1 krone note, acquired by a Polish Jewish refugee and activist