Operation Bernhard Lejb (Leon) Erlich
1945 June 4, Front side - Identification card from Mauthausen concentration camp for civilian internee.
Tan identification card with printed text in German using black ink. Cursive handwriting in black ink is present. A purple cancellation at the bottom left corner does not contain a date. At the bottom left corner is cursive handwriting in black ink.
Name/Title
Operation Bernhard Lejb (Leon) ErlichEntry/Object ID
2025.6.1Scope and Content
1945 June 4, identification card from Mauthausen concentration camp for civilian internee.Context
In the summer of 1942, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt Amt VI (RHSA, Reich Central Security Department, Bureau VI), the office in charge of supplying forged identification documents for secret agents, undertook a secret plan to counterfeit British currency. About 140 Jewish men skilled in banking, graphic art, engraving, and printing were brought to Sachsenhausen to carry out Unternehmen Bernhard in an isolated block of the camp. Operation Bernhard was named for Friedrich Walter Bernhard Krüger, the Nazi SS officer in charge, who had previously been Chief of Police in occupied Poland. In 1943, this team was producing one million counterfeit £5, £10, £20, and £50 bank notes per month. German spies in neutral countries used high quality counterfeits; lesser quality notes bribed collaborators in occupied countries. The bogus money circulated freely in most parts of the world including England. A counterfeit £20 bank note from Operation Bernhard, manufactured by skilled prisoners at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Operation Bernhard counterfeits are the most faithful reproductions of British currency ever produced.* *Context about Operation Bernhard taken from exhibit page F2_P5. Lejb (Leon) Erlich was one of the prisoners interned at Mauthausen concentration camp or subcamps. Erlich was also a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau until the camp was liberated in 1945 by the Soviet Red Army. Erlich immigrated to the United States where he lived until his death in 1987.Collection
Operation BernhardCategory
Identification Card
Philatelic Material