The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 30, July 27, 2003, Article 9

HOLOCAUST AND CAMP MONEY EXHIBIT

  [The following article by Steve Feller is reprinted with
   permission from the July 24, 2003 issue of MPCGram,
   an electronic newsletter for collectors of Military
   Payment Certificates.  To subscribe, go to this web
   page: http://www.papermoneyworld.net/WebMailList/
   -Editor]

  Beginning August 28, the Charlton E. Meyer, Jr. and
  Gloria B. Meyer Collection of Holocaust and Camp
  Money will be exhibited at Holocaust Museum Houston.
  You are strongly urged to see it if at all possible. It is one
  of the most complete collections of this money ever
  assembled. It will run through November 9. On August
  28 I will give an overview presentation on this
  collection.

  The currencies of the camps of World War II speak
   to us of the tragedy, depravity, horror, liberation, hope and
  salvation of that time and those places. Many times
  collectors of such items have been asked why on Earth
  anyone would collect these monies. Or even how can you
  possibly tolerate collecting these currencies?

  The answer is that these bits of paper and metal can
  speak to us of the broad tragedy in a most personal and
  understandable manner. After all, money has been used
  within sight of the chimneys of Birkenau inside the barbed
  wire at Auschwitz.

  Hold a piece of concentration camp currency from the
  Westerbork Transit Camp in Holland with its vignette of
  the main road of the camp. This road was known as the
  "Boulevard des Miseres," or the street of misery. One can
  imagine a young Anne Frank walking on it to the trains to
  the "East" in 1944.

  Mr. Charlton E. Meyer, Jr. is a gentleman from Shreveport,
  LA. He discovered the existence of this money from a well-
  known dealer who showed him some camp scrip.  The rest
  is a tribute to the tenacious drive of Charlton. In his own words:

  "The one thing that I learned early was that nobody knew a
   lot about the subject and no Holocaust museums had any
  sort of a collection. My drive was centered on not only
  collecting this scrip and related areas, but to get it into a
  museum as a permanent exhibit -- not for any thanks but
  simply because it needed to be done."

  Camp money from the Second World War is an enormously
  broad topic. Generally speaking the topic may be divided
  between issues of the Allied, Axis, and neutral powers.
  Within the Axis domain there is money from prisoner of war
  camps, concentration camps, ghettos, work camps, and
  civilian internment camps.  While the money was used by all
  people caught up in the tragedy of the war special mention
  must be made of the money used in the Holocaust. As is well-
  known and thoroughly documented nearly 6,000,000 innocents
  lost their lives in mankind's most organized program of murder.
  Many of the examples of money in this collection silently speak
  of this loss. These notes move our souls to anguish.  This
  exhibition, The Price of Existence: Ghetto Scrip from the HMH
  Archives bears witness to the full scope of the Holocaust through
  its breadth and depth.

  Allied Camp money includes POW issues and internment camp
  notes as in the well-known issues of Camp Hay Australia, Canada,
  and the Isle of Man. All are in this collection. This collection
  includes the rarest of the rare, usually unseen notes. Examples of
  the rarities include the unique Natzweiller note, Sokolka Ghetto in
  Poland, many Auschwitz notes, many UNRRA notes, and so
  much more.

  If there are questions please send them to me at  sfeller at coe.edu."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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