OPERATION BERNHARD NAZI FORGED BANK NOTES

OPERATION BERNHARD NAZI FORGED BANK NOTES
Framed forged British bank note made during Operation Bernhard, an operation by Nazi Germany to forge British currency, matted and framed, above printed image and description of 'Operation Bernhard', visible area 13.75 x 10.5 inches, overall size 14.75 x 11.75 inches. Not examined outside of frame. The operation was first conceived in early 1939 by Arthur Nebe to forge 30 million pounds and drop them over the UK to bring about financial collapse of the British economy. Hitler approved the plan and the operation was named 'Operation Andreas'. Reinhard Heydrich was put in charge of the operation and opened a forging unit in Berlin. British bank notes were studied and engraved plates were produced. This counterfeiting unit continued until 1942, when it was closed down, by which point the unit had produced 3 million pounds of notes. In July 1942, the operation was revived by Heinrich Himmler with the new intention to use counterfeit bills to fund German intelligence operations. SS Major Bernhard Kruger was chosen to head the operation, and the operation was renamed 'Operation Bernhard'. Bernhard ordered the use concentration camp prisoners to produce the bank notes. He set up his unit in blocks 18 and 19 of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. The blocks were isolated from the rest of the camp with barbed wire and SS-Totenkopfverbande were placed as guards outside. Bernhard specifically chose prisoners which had experience in draftsmanship, engraving, printing, and banking. Production of counterfeit notes began in January 1943. Approx. 140 prisoners were working twelve-hour shifts to ensure around the clock production of notes. The operation peaked between mid-1943 to mid-1944 with 65,000 notes being produced per month. To age the notes 40 to 50 prisoners would stand around and pass the notes to each other, to simulate the dirt, oil, grime, and general wear and tear on an average British bank note. Nazi authorities were so pleased with the operation that twelve prisoners, three of whom were Jewish, were awarded the War Merit Medal. The countefeit money was transported from Sachsenhausen to Schloss Labers, in South Tyrol, and put through a money laundering operation run by Friedrich Schwend, who had been running it since the 1930s. He recruited approx. 50 'salesmen' in various territories, including Jewish people, to exchange the counterfeit for genuine Swiss francs or American dollars or to buy black market arms from Yugoslav Partisans to be resold to pro-Nazi groups in Southeast Europe. Between late February and early March 1945, production of notes ceased. Notes which were not destroyed were loaded into trucks and sunk in the Toplitz and Grundlsee lakes. Prisoners were transported in early May in three seperate groups to Ebensee, a subcamp of Mauthausen, under orders to kill them once all the prisoners had been transported. With the advancing Allied army on it's way, and a delay of the third group, all the prisoners were released into general population and the Waffen-SS guards fled. On May 6th, the American army liberated the camp. Since the operation, Lake Toplitz has been the site of several searches. In 1958, some counterfeit bills were found with a book detailing the Bank of England's numbering system.