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1 Krone Theresienstadt Concentration Camp
| Issuer | Der Älteste der Juden in Theresienstadt |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | QUITTUNG ÜBER EINE KRONE 1 WER DIESE QUITTUNG VERFÄLSCHT ODER NAHMACHT ODER GEFÄLSCHTE QUITTUNGEN IN VERKEHT BRINGT, WIRD STRENGSTENS BESTRAFT. (Translation: Receipt of One Krone, Who false or replace this receipt or brought forged receipts, will be highly punished.) |
| Reverse description | The reverse carries a circular Star of David vignette at lower left, surrounded by an intricate guilloche underprint. The denomination "EINE KRONE" is printed in large bold letterpress at center, with the issuing authority and date inscribed along the bottom margin below a facsimile signature. |
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| Comments |
The Theresienstadt ghetto scrip was ordered by the SS and issued under the name of "The Elder of the Jews" — Jacob Edelstein at the time of the design's approval, Benjamin Murmelstein by the time most notes circulated. The currency was a fiction from the start: prisoners could not spend it on anything of real value, and the internal "shops" it nominally served were themselves a prop, maintained largely for Red Cross inspection visits in 1944. The Nazis needed the currency to make Theresienstadt legible as a functioning Jewish town rather than what it was.
Production was handled by prisoners within the camp itself, which accounts for the relatively crude printing. The entire monetary system was coercive theater, and the scrip was worthless the moment the Reich collapsed.