Auschwitz concentration camp bank-note (scrip). One Premium Reichsmark. Printed on card-stock: Prämienschein über RM. 1.-. Konzentrationslager Auschwitz. KL/101 - 8. 44/500.000.

AUCTION 70 | Thursday, September 22nd, 2016 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autographed Letters, Graphic and Ceremonial Art

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Lot 265
(HOLOCAUST).

Auschwitz concentration camp bank-note (scrip). One Premium Reichsmark. Printed on card-stock: Prämienschein über RM. 1.-. Konzentrationslager Auschwitz. KL/101 - 8. 44/500.000.

1.75 x 3 inches. Framed.

1943-44

Est: $15,000 - $20,000
Also known as “Lagergeld,” scrip was used in select concentration camps as a means of improving worker productivity amidst the horrors of abject filth and overwhelming violence. Distributed irregularly and with great prejudice, it was primarily utilized in favor of Kapos. In their respective survivor memoirs, Primo Levi in his ‘Survival in Auschwitz’ and Viktor Frankl in his ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ both make passing reference to the appearance of scrip in the systematic and murderous chaos that was Auschwitz. <<exceptionally rare.>>