Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 [Hardcover]

Lawrence Malkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2006

This true story details the greatest counterfeiting scheme in history and the men the Nazis called upon to help it succeed, a group of concentration-camp Jews. of photos. 2 maps.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former Time correspondent Malkin tells a remarkable, little-known story from WWII: the Nazis' use of concentration camp prisoners to produce counterfeit British (and later American) currency and dump it to sabotage the Allied economies. Some readers might find Malkin's setup a bit slow, but the main events, deeply researched and tautly narrated, form a tale of opportunism made for a movie. The Nazis realized the labor could be drawn from concentration camps, and the prisoners realized that volunteering for the effort could save their lives. At the height of the operation, headed by SS officer Bernhard Krueger, the Jewish prisoners produced 650,000 notes a month. The counterfeiting helped finance some Nazi spy efforts, as well as other parts of the Reich's war machine, but it failed to bring down the Allies. As gripping as the tale of Operation Bernhard is, the story of how the Jewish counterfeit brigade—most of them prisoners at Sachsenhausen—survived the waning days of the war is even more so. 8 pages of b&w photos, 2 maps. (Oct. 12)
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From Booklist

In 1939, two weeks after the onset of World War II, the germination of a counterfeiting plan was launched in Berlin. The goal was to cause chaos in the British economy by spreading millions of phony banknotes across Britain. Such plans were hardly unique in wartime; they were rarely effective, and never a major factor in determining victory or defeat. This plan would be no exception. What made the plan worthy of attention was the fact that the men relocated to perform the actual counterfeiting were pulled out of concentration camps (including death camps) and gathered at the "work camps" of Sachenhausen. Eventually, 140 prisoners from 15 different nations worked under the command of S.S. Officer Bernhard Krueger. Krueger was no monster; rather, he was a typical careerist who treated the prisoners humanely as a practical manner. Still, conditions at Sachenhausen were harsh, especially when Krueger's men ran afoul of a pair of sadistic guards. Malkin, a journalist and foreign correspondent, has written an engrossing and often inspiring chronicle of an obscure episode of the war. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1ST edition (October 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316057002
• ISBN-13: 978-0316057004
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,346,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Historical Account, October 25, 2006

By 

Wantz Upon A Time Reviews (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 (Hardcover)

It was one of Nazi Germany's top-secret operations. It was the most humiliating episode in the Bank of England's history. It saved dozens of Jewish artisans from the chimneys.

Operation Bernhard was the massive counterfeiting plot designed to destroy England's economy--and the financial wellbeing of any other nation that dared to defy the Third Reich. With the failure of its predecessor, Operation Andreas, Operation Bernhard sought talent from an unlikely source. SS Officer Bernhard Krueger selected his crew of counterfeiters from concentration camps. Some of the men were only hours away from death when they were recruited for the scheme. Printers, lithographers, artists, and others with related skills were brought to Block 19 at Sachsenhausen.

While he was nothing like Oscar Schindler, Krueger saw the sense of treating his men like human beings. Decent food and clothing meant so little to those used to it, but it meant far more to those who had been denied the most basic of necessities. Such treatment will buy respect, if not some form of loyalty.

Author Lawrence Malkin's in-depth research delves into a lesser-known facet of WWII and Nazi Germany. The first several chapters provide information of the events leading to the formation of Operation Bernhard. These chapters are somewhat slow, but they are essential to understand the remaining narrative, which grows intriguing andcompelling.

KRUEGER'S MEN would be an excellent reading choice for students of WWII history, as well as any fields that could benefit from the study of a complex crime ring.

Whether a student or casual purveyor, this book is a fascinating study of brilliance and diligent work put to an unsavory use.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
10/25/2006

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars True World War II story that might shock you, November 10, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 (Hardcover)

Since the first coins were minted, men have tried (the vast majority of the time unsuccessfully) to make themselves rich by counterfeiting the world's currencies for their own prosperity. Nations too, have used the tactic in time of war for the last two thousand years with little success.

Lawrence Malkin's historical Krueger's Men, details probably the single most successful effort of a nation or state's attempt to devalue another nation's currency in time of war.

From the earliest months of World War II, Nazi Germany plotted to counterfeit one of the history's premier and most stable currencies, the British pound. Through a series of fits and starts, Heinrich Himmler and the vaunted SS hit upon a solution that would haunt the Bank of England for half a century.

What started as an experiment--with a motive of devaluing the currency of the last-standing free country of Europe--sent tremors through the shattered economies of nearly every country in Europe.

Krueger's Men explains in startling detail how the prisoners broke down the Bank of England notes to the microscopic level and eventually produced British bank notes so perfect that many were taken as real by the bank itself!

Millions of pounds worth of forged notes were surreptitiously circulated through a variety of money launderers scattered all around the European continent. This played havoc with British currency that at the inception of hostilities traded at four pounds to the US Dollar.

By the end of the war, the exchange rate was one for one and many British citizens refused legitimate bills when tendered because of the known scheme to undermine their own currency. One has to wonder whether, given enough time, would the British economy have survived?

To understand the scope of the deception, it wasn't until a little over two years ago that the Bank Of England finally admitted that its currency had been forged during the war.

Lawrence Malkin has done extensive research as the epilog, notes, bibliography and appendixes will testify.

Krueger's Men exposes one of the greatest dark secrets of Nazi deception, the will to live of the men pressed into service at the camps, and a victor's unwillingness to admit the truth.

Armchair Interviews: An amazing true story of World War II.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing read despite some padding, August 17, 2008

By 

Hedley Finger (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 (Paperback)

Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 covers the wider context behind the decision by the Nazi hierarchy to counterfeit the currencies of Britain and America in order to undermine their economies. As such it offers background material on this military strategy down through the ages before focusing on the prisoners of Block 19. It is a useful corrective to the film which re-arranges and in some cases invents events, and merges several characters together. For example, you get no sense that over 140 prisoners were involved in the effort but the film suggests only a few dozen at most. It also corrects a technical error in the film that states that genuine US dollars were printed by rotogravure, which has a fine screen through it which would make the edges of curves and type slightly staircased. In fact, the dollar was printed by intaglio in which the plate or roller is etched and the ink is pulled from the depression by the pressure on the roller and the tack of the ink.

An interesting aspect of this account is following the fortunes of the agents who had to unload the counterfeit banknotes in sufficient quantities to destabilise the real currency. The narrative is slightly diminished by the journalistic impulse to add irrelevant colour but, fortunately, the sources of information are cited in full for those who would want to immerse themselves in greater detail.