Here are some images of items that I have owned, or remain within my collection of KL related pieces...
Initial images show several examples of KL prisoner post, with letters written by prisoners at KL Auschwitz, KL Dachau, KL Mauthausen and KL Sachsenhausen.
KL scrip. Various tokens and vouchers were circulated throughout the KL system, from those at Oranienburg in the early days, through to the subcamps later in the war. Pictured here are a scarce 1RM example from KL Flossenburg, a bottle token used by prisoners who worked at the MWH (MetalwerkeHolleischen) facility near KL Holleischen, a subcamp of KL Flossenburg, and a token from KL Buchenwald.
And similar pieces, sent to a former inmate at Theresienstadt. This prisoner was held in the Kleine Festung (small fortress) area of the camp, for two separate periods of incarceration, before finally being transferred to a Polish hard labour prison, from where no trace of him, nor many other prisoners can be found.
Also from Theresienstadt, these beautifully produced banknotes, the larger denominations of which, namely the 20, 50 and 100Kronen pieces, were watermarked. Designed by the former inmate Petr Klein, a Jewish artist and writer, they were printed at the National Bank in Prague, but not before SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich had ordered several changes to the original image on the reverse. These alterations included less Aryan features, hence the curly hair, longer crooked nose and large ears, and also the placement of the hand was altered, so that the vow "Thou shall not kill" was covered. The artist was later transported to KL Auschwitz, were he and his wife and family all later died.
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