The scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Gila Flam.
Łódź Ghetto scrip printed on offwhite paper in light blue ink with black text. The face has a wide, blank left margin with the serial number in orange in the top corner and the denomination 50 in the bottom corner. The right side has a large rectangle with a background of interlocked 6-pointed Stars of David; within this rectangle, near the right edge, is a vertical band flanked by 3 vertical lines: at the top is the denomination 50 over a scroll with German text and an outlined Star of David at the bottom. There is German text across the center. The reverse has a wide blank margin on the right with the denomination 50 in the bottom corner. The remainder has a large rectangle with a background of interlocked 6-pointed Stars of David. In the top left and right is the denomination 50. In the center is a motif of three circles with a ring of concentric circles. There is a 7-branched candelabrum in the large center circle overlaid with the denomination Funfzig Mark. There are 2 lines of German text along the bottom. The scrip is very worn, with brown and red stains, deep creases, small holes, and torn edges.
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overall: Height: 3.250 inches (8.255 cm) | Width: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm)
50 (funfzig) 20 (zwanzig) mark receipt issued in the Łódź ghetto in German occupied 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 overcrowding and lack of food made disease and starvation widespread. 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, 50 mark note