20 Mark Jewish Ghetto Coinage Al

The Łódź ghetto scrip was issued under the authority of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, the controversial "Eldest of the Jews" appointed by the Nazi occupation administration to govern the ghetto's internal affairs. This aluminium coinage — along with the paper Rumki — formed a closed monetary system designed to prevent any economic connection between ghetto residents and the outside world. Residents received wages in scrip redeemable only within the ghetto's own controlled economy.

Rumkowski's decision to adopt an industrious, self-sufficient ghetto model was a calculated survival strategy, one historians still debate bitterly. The deportations to Chełmno began in January 1942, a year before this denomination was struck.