2020-03-11 Wed

A fifty pfennig banknote issued by and used at the German concentration camp, Oranienburg, later commonly called Sachsenhausen. This strange Banknote portrays the stark reality of camp life.

The note measures 5'' x 3 1/2'' and on both sides pictures the German eagle and Swastika device, two armed German soldiers facing center, and a strand of barbed wire. Sachsenhausen was used primarily for political prisoners and was the scene of a huge counterfeiting effort to undermine the British Pound (operation Bernhard).

A graphic artist named Horst-Willi Lippert was assigned to create the design for the note. He was actually imprisoned at the Oranienburg Concentration Camp when he was given the task. Although the design looks very normal with two soldiers patrolling a barbed wire fence, he went a step further! He replaced the “g” in the word Konzentrationslager (“concentration camp”) with “y” and made it Konzentrationslayer which translates to “concentration killer”. Even the powerful and tactful Nazis never found out about this minor yet meaningful change.

This typographical tampering was confirmed by Mr. Lippert to German numismatists in 1981 while residing in West Germany. This was shortly before his death on November 13, 1981.

Image Source: Heritage Auctions