Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp scrip, 1 krone note

Alfred Herzka was born on June 10, 1930, in Sonntagberg, Austria. He was the only son of Friedrich Herzka and Berta Schiller. His father had served in the Austrian Army on the Italian front during World War I, 1914-1918. He received a doctorate in engineering from the University of Vienna in 1928 and from 1929 was employed in the steel mill in Gerstl bei Waidhofen. His paternal grandmother had died in the 1920s; his paternal grandfather, Felix Herzka, was an accountant. His maternal grandfather, Simon Schiller, was a master tailor, and lived in Vienna with his wife, Ernestine, born October 14, 1867. In March 1938, the Anschluss occurred. German troops marched into Austria on March 12 and the next day, Austria was incorporated into Nazi Germany. The Germans soon enacted anti-Jewish legislation to exclude Jews from the economic and social life of Austria. Alfred’s father was dismissed from his job for being Jewish and the family moved to Vienna. The November 8-9 Kristallnacht pogrom was exceptionally brutal there – the synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses and homes were vandalized, and there was widespread violence. The persecution of Jews continued to intensify and in 1939, Alfred’s parents sent him to a children’s home in Montmorency, France. Later that year, his parents received permission and visas to emigrate from Austria to Chile and the family sailed on the MS Virgilio in 1940. All their property, including stocks, autos, and other materials goods, was confiscated by the German government. Alfred’s paternal grandfather was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp where he perished in 1942. His maternal grandfather, Simon, died in Vienna of natural causes in 1938, but his grandmother, Ernestine, was deported and imprisoned in Theresienstadt from 1942-1945. In 1946, she joined the family in Chile; she passed away at age 97, on October, 7, 1964. Alfred’s parents relocated to Cologne, Germany, many years after the war. Alfred became a journalist and in 1966, when he was stationed in Hamburg, Germany, married Ingrid Seeman (d. 1972), a German Protestant.

Ernestine Debora Winter was born on October 14, 1867, in Czechoslovakia. She married Simon Schiller, a master tailor, and they lived in Vienna, Austria. They had a daughter, Berta, who married Friedrich Herzka, an engineer in a steel plant in Sonntagberg, and they had one son, Alfred, born on June 10, 1930. Her husband died in 1938. That year, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in March and anti-Jewish legislation was immediately enacted. Berta and her family moved to Vienna after her husband was fired from his job for being Jewish. The Kristallnacht pogrom that November was especially brutal in Vienna and the persecution of Jews continued to worsen, with frequent arrests and deportation to concentration camps. Berta, Simon, and Alfred were able to emigrate to Chile in 1940. Ernestine was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on October 10, 1942. She was liberated on July 6, 1945, and by the next year joined her daughter and her family in Chile. Ernestine passed away on October 7, 1964, age 97 years, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Santiago.

The Theresienstadt scrip was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007 by Alfred Herzka, the grandson of Ernestine Schiller.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Alfred Herzka