Lot 3685

Description

Germany-Poland, Auschwitz Concentration camp, fifty pfennig note, issued 1944, (Campbell No. 4181, Stahl, No.99, [p.60]). Some marks, otherwise very fine and very rare.

This Auschwitz note issued by this, the most infamous of Nazi death camps, had only a total issue of 500,000 notes. These and the one mark notes were issued to only a select few in the camp and mostly to non-Jews. The notes were issued as a reward for very hard work as for 'digging a ditch under a road for a new water pipe' (Stahl p.58). They had a high buying power as it could buy 6 cigarettes or 6 portions of soap. The notes were more used at Birkenau a woman's prison close to Auschwitz and distributed to those diligent workers at that camp.