3 Reichsmark Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Buchenwald camp scrip was not currency in any monetary sense — it was a control mechanism. The SS introduced Prämienscheine (incentive notes) across the concentration camp system from 1943 onward as a cynical productivity measure: prisoners who exceeded work quotas could receive scrip redeemable at the Lagerkantine, theoretically for tobacco, food supplements, or brothel tokens. The Buchenwald denominations, issued through the SS-Standort-Kantine, circulated within a closed economy where the issuer also controlled everything the scrip could purchase.

Survivors' accounts consistently note that access to the Kantine was itself subject to SS discretion, making the notes' face value largely theoretical for most inmates.