Authors

Object ID

2015.2.184

Object Name

Debenture

Date

1939

Files

Download

Download Full Text (6.0 MB)

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

I.G. Farben Partial Debenture

Share

COinS
 

Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.