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Helmut Weitze

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    #1

    5 Fingers

    Hello all - If you get the chance to watch the movie 5 Fingers do so. I found the spy thriller interesting from the stand point of the spy who was involved and the British pounds he was given for payment. The movie was released in 1952 and two books about the spy codename Cicero were written about the spy. The spy was Elyesa Bazna who was working for the British Embassy in Turkey from 1943 through 1944. During his days for spying for the Germans he provided some very sensitive information of which some included bombing raids and high conference meetings.

    For me what is even more interesting is that he was paid in British pounds for the material he gave to the Germans. The money he received, a few hundred thousand pounds, were forged British pounds from a known German operation called Operation Bernhard. This operation was a secret German plan of making counterfeit pound notes in an attempt to destabilize the British government.

    I am posting one of the British pound paper notes from my collection.
    Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did. Quote - Sophie Scholl - White Rose resistance group
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    #2
    Forged British pound...
    Attached Files
    Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did. Quote - Sophie Scholl - White Rose resistance group

    Comment

      #3
      Ralph,

      Cool...Where do you get this stuff?

      Comment

        #4
        John - I really don't know...it just keeps arriving and being left at my door.

        Originally posted by John F. View Post
        Ralph,

        Cool...Where do you get this stuff?
        Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did. Quote - Sophie Scholl - White Rose resistance group

        Comment

          #5
          A totally amazing and significant piece!!

          Comment

            #6
            Ralph,

            Any chance we can change "Doors" for a week or two?
            Michael D. GALLAGHER

            M60-A2 Tank Commander Cold War proverb: “You can accomplish more with a kind word and a ‘Shillelagh’ than you can with just a kind word.”

            Comment

              #7
              Originally posted by Ralph Pickard View Post
              John - I really don't know...it just keeps arriving and being left at my door.
              The only thing I have ever had left at my door was a brown paper bag that was lit on fire...

              Comment

                #8
                Mike - You are invited to come over any time you want. Just don't leave any of those burning bags at my front door...

                Originally posted by Michael D. Gallagher View Post
                Ralph,

                Any chance we can change "Doors" for a week or two?
                John - I could not stop laughing when I read your post...too funny...

                Originally posted by John F. View Post
                The only thing I have ever had left at my door was a brown paper bag that was lit on fire...
                Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did. Quote - Sophie Scholl - White Rose resistance group

                Comment

                  #9
                  An interesting article from Deutsche Welle (01.02.07) which further discusses about an upcoming movie project relating to the counterfeit money made during WWII.
                  --------------------------------------------------------

                  Flim on Nazi Counterfeting operation to debut at Berlinale

                  When it comes to historical drama, there are few eras which can pull the crowds like the Third Reich. This month, the Berlinale Film Festival will serve as testing ground for a new film set in Hitler's Germany.
                  Germany's Nazi past has been a recurrent theme in films made in the country in recent years. From "Downfall," which controversially portrayed the human side of Hitler, to a recent irreverent comedy about the Nazi dictator called "Mein Führer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler," German films have been breaking new ground by using humor and irony to tackle issues still sensitive in the country.

                  The latest film, "The Counterfeiters," sheds light on a little-known chapter of Nazi history. It tells the spectacular tale of the largest forgery operation of all time, conducted from within the squalor of one of Hitler's concentration camps.

                  For the last three years of the Second World War, 142 prisoners in the Sachsenhausen camp, north of Berlin, were forced by their captors to counterfeit millions of British and US banknotes in an attempt to bring the enemy economies to their knees.

                  It was an ambitious plan, but the most astonishing thing about it was the way in which it was executed. In two shielded wooden huts within the barbed wire confines of the camp, the men -- some of them were trained printers while others had experiences in counterfeiting -- were granted a life of relative comfort and provided enough food, soft beds and proper toilets. In return they used their professional expertise to forge money.
                  A first-rate printing workshop was set up inside the two huts and the counterfeiters became part of a state secret which kept them alive while thousands of prisoners were being murdered and starved to death around them. The men came to call the workshop their "golden cage."

                  The devil's workshop
                  The film, directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, is based on a true account of the forgery workshop as told in Adolf Burger's book "Des Teufels Werkstatt" (The Devil's Workshop). It follows a character called Salomon Sorowitsch, loosely based on a notorious counterfeiter of that time named Salomon Smolianoff.

                  The existence of the concentration camp forgery mill is a relatively little-known chapter in Nazi history, but the producers of "The Counterfeiters," Babette Schröder and Nina Bohlmann, immediately recognized the potential of the story when they came across Burger's book.

                  Schröder and Bohlmann said they first read the book six years ago and thought the story would make an interesting movie. After considering different ways of reworking the material, they approached Adolf Burger about adapting it for the silver screen.

                  They also talked to Ruzowitzky, who said he was immediately drawn by the universal nature of the material.
                  "Asking whether people should play table-tennis in a concentration camp when others around them are being tortured to death is the same as asking whether we should be allowed to live such affluent, protected lives when there is so much suffering the world," Ruzowitzky said.

                  Issues of conscience
                  Burger worked with Ruzowitzky as an advisor on the script and accompanied the production as it progressed. Although some of the historical details, such as the prisoners' release, are not entirely in keeping with what really happened, Schröder and Bohlmann have tried to show the issues of conscience facing the counterfeiters.
                  "What fascinated us about the story was that there were two huts in the middle of this huge concentration camp in which the prisoners were allowed to live under better conditions than everyone else," the producer-duo said. "They knew about the atrocities on the far side of their wooden walls, they could hear it day by day, but they couldn't do anything about it."

                  Dangerous game of sabotage

                  During their period of "privileged" imprisonment, Burger and his fellow prisoners knew that if they co-operated with their captors, they stood a chance of survival, but that if they sabotaged the efforts to flood the Allied economies, they would face certain death. For some, questions of conscience were at play; for others, the survival instinct was the greatest.

                  For producers Schröder and Bohlmann, it was the character of Salomon Smolinoff that was the most interesting. Author Adolf Burger describes in his book how the counterfeiter labored to produce the perfect dollar note. The results however were never quite satisfactory because other prisoners were sabotaging his efforts without his knowledge, the producer-duo said.

                  Their stalling tactics could not go on forever, and ultimately the dollar did go into production in Sachsenhausen. But by then the Allies were well on their way to Berlin and there wasn't enough time to mass produce the counterfeited notes. The bills they did manage to print, along with the 134 million British pounds, stamps and other forged documents are believed to have been sunk in Austria's Lake Topliz.

                  Reaching a wide audience
                  In a note of introduction to his book, Burger states: "This book was written in order that people don't forget what happened."
                  The makers and producers of the film have taken that message to heart.
                  "We have to tell the stories of the Holocaust, and we are morally obliged to do it in such a way that we reach as many people as possible," Ruzowitzky said. "In that sense even a film about the Holocaust should be contain elements of excitement and entertainment. 'The Counterfeiters' is an entertaining film."


                  Tamsin Walker - DW
                  Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did. Quote - Sophie Scholl - White Rose resistance group

                  Comment

                    #10
                    There are a couple of books about Operation Bernhard, but both have been out of print for quite some time. Also, there was a BBC production 'Private Schultz' starring Michael Elphick, on Masterpiece Theatre in the states in the 70s that was a dry comedy about the counterfeiting operation. It was excellent, but is apparantly not available on DVD or any other medium today.
                    Erich
                    Festina lente!

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Erich - Sorry for the slow response back to you. Thanks for the information in your post.

                      Originally posted by Erich View Post
                      There are a couple of books about Operation Bernhard, but both have been out of print for quite some time. Also, there was a BBC production 'Private Schultz' starring Michael Elphick, on Masterpiece Theatre in the states in the 70s that was a dry comedy about the counterfeiting operation. It was excellent, but is apparantly not available on DVD or any other medium today.
                      Erich
                      Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did. Quote - Sophie Scholl - White Rose resistance group

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Hello all - A follow up to a earlier post. The foreign made movie Counterfeiter will be released this week in theaters 12 October 2007.

                        I will be interested in reading what you all think of the movie after it has opened in theaters later this week.

                        Thanks...
                        Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did. Quote - Sophie Scholl - White Rose resistance group

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Ralph,

                          Thanks for the movie tip! I'll be sure to look for that one.

                          Chris

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Erich View Post
                            There are a couple of books about Operation Bernhard, but both have been out of print for quite some time. Also, there was a BBC production 'Private Schultz' starring Michael Elphick, on Masterpiece Theatre in the states in the 70s that was a dry comedy about the counterfeiting operation. It was excellent, but is apparantly not available on DVD or any other medium today.
                            Erich
                            Hi Erich
                            The serie Private Schultz is awaileble on Amazon,cost about 10 £,I just received it a few days ago.
                            Cheers
                            J.S

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Thanks Jørn!
                              Apparently it's not available for Region 1 from the US Amazon, but I ordered it this morning from Amazon UK as I can play all region discs. Thanks for letting me know!

                              Erich
                              Festina lente!

                              Comment

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