This bank note is a middle grade with creasing on its lower right corner of the obverse.Â
It has on the reverse double field stamps with eagle and swastika motif for the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend or “Hitler Youth” as well as 25th SS Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hunyadi.
This note was sourced at the same time as the other Reichskreditkassen notes with field stamps on offer in our site so they are all no doubt from the same region and time.
Priced to sell due to its creases and some soiling it is still a wonderful collectors piece for this very historic time.
Design
Issued by: Â Â Reichskreditkassen (Reich Credit Offices)
Stamps: Â Â Â 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend or “Hitler Youth”
25th Waffen Grenadier Division
Value:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 50 Mark – Serial number B8634944
Date:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1945
Catalogue: Â Â Ro.193
Size: Â Â Â Â Â 170Â x 85Â mm
Oberse: Â Â Â Portrait of a Fishermans wife with headscarf
Reverse:Â Â Â Â Marienburg in West prussia
History
During World War II the German Nazi party has several armed branches which were never formally a part of the Wehrmacht. One such was a very short lived infantry division of the Waffen SS named the 25th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Hunyadi.
The Division was formed by troops taken from Royal Hungarian Army’s 13th Honvéd Division late in 1944. Originally they were named the 25. SS-Freiwilligen (Volunteer) Grenadier Division. They were very poorly trained and ill equipped for the road ahead.
They saw combat in several places alongside the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend and the last of these actions was facing the Soviet Red Army from which they retreated due to poor supplies and ended up in Austria where they surrendered to the U.S. Army
