Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived the Holocaust Capa dura - 2008

"...History is not just world changing events. History is not just stories of valor or sadness. History is what makes up a person ... To Moritz Nachtstern, the reluctant counterfeiter, WW2 was his fight for survival, and Counterfeiter told his story in a simple manner that nevertheless triggered deepest emotions." -C. Peter Chen, www.ww2db.com (November 2008)

"Counterfeiter: How a Norwegian Jew Survived the Holocaust is an addition for both general-interest lending libraries strong in Holocaust studies and for World War II or Judaic history holdings. It tells of the Nazi secret project, Operation Bernhard, which used prisoners to produce counterfeit British bank nots--considered some of the most perfect counterfeits ever produced--which were to be dropped over London to destabilize the British economy. Author Moritz Nachstern was one of those picked for the program: his story survival and the project offers unusual gripping insights." -The Bookwatch (October 2008)

"As far as Malkin is concerned, it’s the 'most reliable and psychologically acute' of the half-dozen memoirs written by participants of the counterfeiting operation. 'To me, it’s barely a Holocaust story,'said Malkin of the counterfeiting saga. “It’s a story of survival and deception in wartime.”-Jon Kalish, The Forward (August 2008)

"Arresting from start to finish, this harrowing memoir is full of compassion, pain and strength that illuminates from the inside a little-known episode in the Nazi effort." --Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review


From the introductory essay by award-winning journalist Lawrence Malkin, author of Krueger's Men: the Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 (Little, Brown 2006)
"Of the half-dozen memoirs written by the prisoners who were conscripted into the greatest counterfeiting operation in history, Moritz Nachtstern's is the most reliable and psychologically acute version of the drama as seen from inside Sachsenhausen's Block 19. Shortly after he returned home in 1945, when his extraordinary experiences were still fresh in his memory, he dictated his reminiscences to his new wife, Rachel. Her typed notes (still in possession of their daughter, Sidsel) were later turned over to a Norwegian journalist, Ragnar Arntzen. He wove them into a story of deceit and survival by the counterfeiting crew of about 145 prisoners and their master, SS Major Bernhard Krueger."

Moritz Nachtstern (1902-1969), a typographer, was one of the 532 Norwegian Jews deported to Germany on the ship Danau in 1942. From March 1943 until February 1945 he was a prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. He managed to escape in the chaos of the last days of the war as American forces approached the camp. The author lives in Norway.