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50 Pfennigs Holzminden; Officer PoW Camp
| Issuer | Offizier-Gefangenenlager Holzminden |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Plain typeset voucher for the Holzminden Officer Prisoner of War Camp, dated September 1917. The denomination Fünfzig Pfennig is stated in letterpress text, with the camp name in bold type. A small printer's imprint for J.C. König & Ebhardt, Hannover appears at the foot. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Offizier-Gefangenenlager Holzminden Fünfzig Pfennig im September 1917 |
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Holzminden opened in 1917 as a camp for Allied officers, and it ran under Hauptmann Karl Niemeyer — a man so despised by his prisoners that they nicknamed him "Milwaukee Bill" for his exaggerated claims of having lived in America. Niemeyer's erratic administration became notorious enough to attract official British complaints, and the camp's internal currency was part of a deliberate policy of isolating prisoners economically from the surrounding population.
J. C. König & Ebhardt, primarily a bookbinding and printing house in Hannover, handled a number of these Lagergeld contracts during the war. Holzminden is better remembered today for the tunnel escape of June 1918 — twenty-nine officers got clear, ten made it home — than for its scrip.