Terezin banknote

As part of the preparations for the visit of the international commission on 28th June 1943, when Terezin was supposed to become an at least a little humane-looking and on the whole normally functioning place, worthless money, so-called Ghettogeld began to be issued. In the picture is a sample of a 100 crown note.

On its reverse side is the signature of Jacob Edelstein, one of the leaders of the "Ältestenrat" which was an organ of Jewish self-government. Towards the end of the war this man was executed. His replacement was then some Murmenstein, a Polish Jew, who lived to see the liberation, and after the war was accused of collaborating with the Germans, that he's allegedly helped organize transports. The Ältestenrat's situation wasn't a simple one, because its members could basically only follow the Germans' orders. They had a card catalog of the prisoners and would for example get an order that they have to dispatch a transport with a thousand people, and their task was to choose these people.

Photos from this interviewee