Mittelbau forced labor camp scrip, .01 Reichsmark note

Scrip (also called chits) valued at 0.01 Reichsmark, distributed to slave laborers in Mittelbau (Central Construction) concentration camp. Mittelbau (also called Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen), located near the town of Nordhausen, was originally established on August 28, 1943, as a subcamp of Buchenwald, with the codename, Dora. In response to increased Allied bombing, prisoners were forced to dig huge tunnels in the mountains, safe from aerial destruction. Inside the completed tunnels, the prisoners then constructed factories and storage areas for rocket production. Once completed, assembly line production of V-2 rockets began in late December of 1943. Both forced laborers and German civil workers worked on rocket construction. To encourage productivity on the assembly line, authorities paid the prisoners with scrip which could be exchanged for goods in the camp canteen. Nine denominations were issued: 0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, 1, 2, 5, and 10 marks. In 1944, Mittelbau was converted into an independent concentration camp with over 30 subcamps of its own. On April 4, 1945, with the Allied forces approaching, the Nazis began to remove and destroy evidence of their activities. This included the evacuation of prisoners from the camp and the destruction of documentation relating to the production of the scrip. Mittelbau was liberated on April 11, 1945, by elements of the U.S. 3rd Armored and 104th Infantry Divisions.