Moritz Nachtstern (1902–1969)

Moritz Nachtstern was born in Warsaw, Poland. His family moved to Norway in 1907, when he was a small child. The rest of the family later emigrated to the USA. In 1942, after Nazi Germany invaded Norway in World War II, Moritz was deported to Germany on the ship Danau. In 1943, he was sent to first to the Auschwitz death camp, then to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There he and other graphic designers were commissioned by the Nazis to make counterfeit pound notes to be used to destroy the British economy. As Allied forces approached at the end of the war, the prisoners and the banknote press were moved to Mauthausen. Moritz survived to be liberated in May 1945. He went home to Norway and resumed his work as a typographer. He married Rachel Tomsinsky, with whom he had two children. Rachel assisted him with preparing his memoirs. The book was edited by journalist Ragnar Arntzen and originally published in Norway in 1949 as Falskmyntner i block 19. Danish and Swedish translations followed. An English language edition called Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived the Holocaust, appeared in 2008, with a foreword by Moritz's daughter Sidsel Nachtstern.