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5 Mark Halbmondlager; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Halbmondlager (Half Moon Camp) - Bank-Abteilung der Gefangenenlager |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1918 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Papiermark (1914-1923) |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on blue guilloche underprint. Camp name in a decorative framed header at top; denomination in large ornate Fraktur script across the centre. Serial number in a ruled box at upper right; violet handstamp of the Banking Department applied over the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Halbmondlager GUTSCHEIN für Fünf Mark (Translation: Half Moon Camp. Voucher for five mark.) |
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| Comments |
The Halbmondlager — Half Moon Camp — near Wünsdorf, south of Berlin, was a purpose-built facility holding Muslim prisoners of war, primarily from the British Indian Army, French colonial North Africa, and the Russian Caucasus. Germany's interest in these prisoners was explicitly political: the camp was central to the Deutsches Jihad-Büro's effort to incite a pan-Islamic uprising against the Entente colonial powers, a strategy backed by the Ottoman alliance. Prisoners received preferential treatment, a mosque, and their own internal currency to facilitate this propaganda environment.
The camp scrip circulated only within Wünsdorf's perimeter. Its existence as a monetary system was entirely contingent on that political project.