I.G. Farben Partial Debenture

Authors

Object ID

2015.2.184

Object Name

Debenture

Date

1939

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Front: White paper with green ink and border. Emblem with shields on top. Includes text in German and a grey signature. Bottom includes several more shields.Interior: Two columns with German text.Back: Five boxes with printed German text and dotted lines, as well as a blue signature.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

I.G. Farben 100 Reichsmark debenture from 1939. Refundable date was in August 1959, but by this time the partial debenture was already invalid. On reverse are two German Bank signatures. The I.G. Farben chemical conglomerate was one of the most powerful companies in Nazi Germany, formed out of a union of Bayer, Hoechst, and BASF in the 1920s. I.G. Farben was so enmeshed with the Nazi regime that it ran its own slave labor camp at Auschwitz, known as Auschwitz III or Buna, where prisoners were forced to produce synthetic rubber and oil. The very large Buna factory was located close to Auschwitz and the inmates -- at its peak more than 83,000 -- worked for the company under execrable conditions. When they were no longer able to work, they were simply moved to Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, where they were gassed using another I.G. Farben product, the pesticide Zyklon B, produced by the German pesticide company Degesch, a company which I.G. Farben partially owned. After the war, I.G. Farben executives were indicted for war crimes, 12 of the 24 executives being sentenced to prison terms. The company was broken up into four constituent corporations after the war, the Allies finding it too corrupt to exist as the conglomerate it was during the war.

Dimensions

11 3/4 x 8 1/4"

Keywords

German Bank, I. G. Farben, Reichsmark, Bayer, Hoechst, BASF, Auschwitz, Buna, Birkenau, Zyklon B, Degesch

Subcollection

Concentration

Recommended Citation

"I.G. Farben Partial Debenture" (1939). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2015.2.184.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/268