POLAND, German Occupation. Łódź Ghetto, 1940-1944. 10 Mark 1943 (Aluminum, 28 mm, 3.46 g, 12 h), Emergency coinage for the use in the Łódź Ghetto. GETTO / 1943 Star of David surrounded by doubled-lined circle interrupted by six miniature stars of David. Rev. DER AELTESTE DER JUDEN / •IN LITZMANNSTADT• around value '10' overlapped by banner 'QUITTUNG ÜBER', MARK below. Jaeger L4b. Fingerprint on the obverse and minor marks, otherwise, about extremely fine.



In the early 1940s the Łódź Ghetto was turned into a sealed and brutally controlled industrial zone, forced to supply the German war machine. The Nazis installed a Jewish administration under Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski to enforce their orders and keep production running under appalling conditions. In 1942-43, special tokens were issued in the name of the 'Jewish Elders of Litzmannstadt,' the imposed German name for Łódź. These tokens became the ghetto’s only legal currency, and people often surrendered their last possessions simply to obtain enough of these tokens to buy a little food or medicine.

As such, these small tokens bear silent witness to a system built on crushing deprivation and to the immense human suffering inflicted by the Holocaust.