15/04/2023
Ukraine.
One of the characteristic features of the occupation regime in Ukraine in 1941-1944 was the active participation of the Reich's financial and banking institutions, among which the Central Bank of Issuing "Ukraine" occupies the most important position.
Unfortunately, this extremely important aspect of the N**i "new order" is still overlooked by researchers.
Pursuant to the order of the Minister of the Reich, A. Rosenberg, of March 5, 1942, a central issuing bank was established with branches (former imperial credit unions) in the main cities of Ukraine and the Belarusian part: Brest-Litovsk, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kryvyi Rih, Żytomierz, Kiev, Lutsk and Vinnitsa.
According to its status, the issuing bank "Ukraine" corresponded to the Krakow issuing bank. All business entities were obliged to open current accounts in issuing banks.
On June 1, 1942, the issuing bank began issuing its own banknotes - Karbovanets in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 with the date of issue of March 10, 1942.
After November 14, 1942, to facilitate monetary transactions, 1- and 200-karbovantez banknotes were also introduced into circulation.
The Reich Printing House (Reichsdruckerei) in Berlin also printed 2 karbovanets banknotes in a fairly large amount. This may be indirectly evidenced by two series noted in catalogues, one of which consists of one number, the other of two numbers, but for unknown reasons never entered circulation.
Without reference to sources, information about them was first reported in 1967 (Raymond Toy, Bob Meyer). In particular, they indicated that several containers with banknotes of this denomination had been stolen during transport to their destination.
In 1971 and 1995, S. Schwan and D. Boling clarified the earlier information in their works, confirming the very fact of the theft of containers, but they also informed that the remaining money was destroyed by the occupiers. Albert Pick, with reference to the work of his predecessors R. Toy and B. Meyer and D. Boling and S. Schwan, fully supported his statement that "a large sum of money was stolen" during the transport.
With this statement, they made it clear that the number of lost banknotes turned out to be dangerously large for the financial security of the Reich, and therefore the Reichsbank and the Ministry of Finance made the only right decision to destroy the remaining banknotes of this denomination.
The Soviet researcher Boris Senilov, who in the 1940s worked in the financial authorities of military units, spread this theory, based on the testimonies of eyewitnesses of sabotage. Without citing any sources, he claimed that the 2 karbovanets banknotes had been destroyed during transport as a result of partisan diversion.
Despite the vagueness of this wording, the recipients saw it clearly - it was the work of the Soviet partisans that derailed the train in Ukraine.
That is why most researchers are of the opinion that almost the entire circulation of 2 karbovanets banknotes was destroyed by the N**is, and those that survived became a rarity.
However, some authors of the catalogs tried not to overload the reader with such details, so they wrote that the 2-ruble bills were not put into circulation at all.
However, no author mentions the names of witnesses or at least the place where the train was blown up. It is impossible to confirm or disprove any of these versions, because neither the factory printing money for Ukraine nor archival materials have survived.
The authenticity of the fact that the partisans attacked the transport with the money is rather doubtful, as it does not appear in the reports of the Soviet partisan units, as well as in the documents of the Ukrainian resistance movement, which expanded its activities in Volhynia. The researchers' confirmations were also not found in the German archives.
The documents of the Reich printing house, which printed the mentioned banknotes, were burnt during one of the allied air raids on Berlin.
Only the minutes of the board meeting of the Imperial Credit Banks of August 31, 1942 contain a scant mention of the wounding of the director of the Imperial Credit Bank, who apparently accompanied the transport of money, by partisans.
It is a credible fact that the decision to "not introduce a banknote" with a denomination of 2 karbovanets was taken before the implementation of the monetary reform at the State Commissariat. In particular, in the letter (of August 19, 1942) from the head of the Central Bank of Issuance (dr Einsiedel) to the director of the Reichsbank (dr Kinzladel), where it is about the introduction of a sample of occupation banknotes added to circulation - the 2 karbowovce banknote - it does not appear.
The refusal to put the face value of 2 rubles into circulation was motivated by the lack of a suitable analogue in the series of issues of banknotes of imperial credit banks (1, 5, 10, 50 Reichspfenning, 1, 2, 5, 20 and 50 Reichsmarks), which were in equal circulation with rubles in the ratio 1 = 10. ...
Unlike the banknotes of the Kiev Bank of Issuance, with similar decorative images and the absence of figurative plots, a rather unusual feature of the Central Issuing Bank's karbovanets is their "folk" (in the spirit of National Socialism)
External appearance - stylized images: a smiling boy in a fur hat; girls with flowers; peasant women with spikelets; miner; Captain; Peasants against the background of sheaves and a chemist.
As stated in the "List and description of banknotes and coins in circulation" of the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine" published in 1943, the listed banknotes with "traditional Ukrainian symbols" were intended by their designers to symbolize "free and happy work" for Germany.
However, the paintings they created, as well as the specific color selection, turned out to be far from Ukrainian ethnographic motifs. At the same time, there are noticeable fluctuations in the colors of the print, especially in shades of brown, which is of course the result of the use of various types of dyes.
On the obverses of the tickets, the markings ("Ein", "Funf", "Zehn", "Zwanzig", "Funfzig", "Hundert", "Zweihundert", "Funfhundert") "Karbowanez",
the date and place of issue are marked in German "Rowno, den 10. marz 1942",
the issuer is the central issuing bank "Ukraine" ("Zentralnotenbank Ukraine"),
signatures of officials (bank director Dr. Einsiedel and his deputy Dr. Scheffler),
series and number, as well as the image of the imperial eagle with a sw****ka.
In the financial and banking circles of the Third Reich, Dr. Einsiedel was considered a leading specialist in the introduction of war currency in the occupied countries.
He took almost the largest part in the organization of issuing banks in Serbia and Slovenia.
On the back, which are designed in the same way for all banknotes, their denominations are marked in Ukrainian and German, and a bilingual warning is printed:
"Counterfeiting is punishable by heavy imprisonment" - "Geldfalschung wird mit zuchtaus bestraft".
German, not Ukrainian money that should serve the military needs of Germany, not Ukraine.
