Operation Bernhard: The Nazi Counterfeit Pound Notes
Deep inside Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the SS forced skilled Jewish prisoners to forge Bank of England white notes so convincing that the Bank itself struggled to separate them from the real thing. Operation Bernhard became the largest counterfeiting scheme in history, and its surviving notes are now serious, carefully authenticated collectibles.
Sachsenhausen 1942-1945 8.9 million forged notes Lake Toplitz recovery Oscar-winning film
Last updated: July 2026
Operation Bernhard was the Second World War German scheme that used Jewish concentration camp prisoners at Sachsenhausen to counterfeit nearly 9 million Bank of England notes with a face value of more than £134 million. Run by the SS from 1942 to 1945, the operation aimed to fund German intelligence work and undermine confidence in the pound. It ended with crates of forged notes dumped in an Austrian lake, a Bank of England overhaul of British currency, a survivor's memoir, and an Academy Award winning film. The notes that survive today are among the most storied pieces of paper money a collector can own.
What was Operation Bernhard?
It was an SS-run counterfeiting program designed to flood the world with fake British money. An earlier effort, Operation Andreas, began in 1940 with the idea of destabilizing the British economy by dropping forged notes over Britain, but it stalled. In 1942 the SS revived the project under a new name, taken from its new commander, and a new purpose: rather than bombing Britain with paper, the forgeries would quietly pay for German intelligence operations, foreign agents, and scarce war supplies.
The target was the Bank of England white note, the large black-on-white notes then used for £5 and above. The prisoners had to solve three problems: the distinctive rag paper, the intricate engraving, and the Bank's serial numbering system. They came unnervingly close on all three, producing notes graded into quality tiers, with the best reserved for espionage use in neutral countries.
Who ran the operation, and who did the forging?
SS Major Bernhard Krüger commanded the unit, and the operation carried his name. From 1942 he pulled roughly 140 Jewish prisoners with backgrounds in printing, engraving, graphics, and banking out of the camp system and installed them in the isolated blocks 18 and 19 at Sachsenhausen, north of Berlin, working long shifts at the presses.
Among them was Adolf Burger, a Slovak Jewish typographer who had been arrested for printing false baptismal certificates to protect Jews from deportation, and whose memoir later carried the story to the world. In 1944 the professional forger Salomon Smolianoff joined the unit to help with quality control and a planned US dollar forgery. Distribution ran through a laundering network managed by Friedrich Schwend, and forged pounds famously paid the German agent code-named Cicero in Turkey. The prisoners understood that the project's end likely meant their own, and some quietly slowed the dollar work to buy time.
How many counterfeit pounds did the Nazis print?
Nearly 9 million notes. Postwar figures compiled by Chief Inspector William Rudkin of the Metropolitan Police, cited by the Bank of England Museum, put production at 3,945,867 £5 notes, 2,398,981 £10 notes, 1,337,335 £20 notes, and 1,282,902 £50 notes, a total face value of £134,610,945. Only a fraction was ever spent; much of the rest was warehoused, destroyed, or sunk at the war's end. Even so, it remains the largest counterfeiting operation ever documented.
How did the Bank of England respond?
Decisively, and for decades. According to the Bank of England Museum, the first forgery was caught in 1943 after a note passed through a British bank in Morocco and a Bank clerk found its serial number already recorded as paid. Once the scale of the problem became clear, the Bank withdrew every denomination above £5 from circulation. The gap lasted a generation: the Bank of England did not reintroduce a £10 note until 1964, the £20 until 1970, and the £50 until 1981. The white £5 itself was replaced in 1957 by a new design with stronger security features. Operation Bernhard permanently changed how British money was made.
What was pulled out of Lake Toplitz?
Crates of forged pounds. As Germany collapsed in early 1945, the SS moved the operation from Sachsenhausen to Mauthausen and then to the Redl-Zipf tunnel complex in Austria, and finally dumped much of the remaining output into Lake Toplitz and nearby waters in the Austrian Alps. In 1959 an expedition financed by the German magazine Stern recovered sunken crates containing millions of pounds in forged notes along with printing records, and a further dive in 2000, which Adolf Burger himself attended, brought up more. Toplitz recoveries are why many surviving Bernhard notes show water staining, and why the lake still carries a whiff of Nazi treasure legend.
What are the memoir and the film behind the story?
Adolf Burger survived Ebensee concentration camp, where the unit's prisoners were liberated in May 1945, and spent his later life documenting what happened. His memoir, first published in Czech in 1983 and later in English as The Devil's Workshop, became the basis for The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher), the 2007 Austrian-German film directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. Burger advised the production, and the film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008. It remains the reason many collectors first hear of these notes.
Why are Bernhard notes collected today?
Because they are history you can hold: a counterfeit so good it forced a central bank to redesign its money. Surviving examples, many with Toplitz water stains, are actively collected, and Paper Money Guaranty identifies, attributes, and grades Operation Bernhard notes as historical artifacts.
Authentication matters more here than almost anywhere else in the hobby, because you are buying a specific historical counterfeit, not just any fake white note. According to Paper Money Guaranty, specialists have documented 28 differences between genuine white notes and Bernhard forgeries, including a leaf line in the Britannia vignette that stops abruptly on the forgeries. Known serial prefix ranges help too, but a serial in the right range is not proof by itself. Buy certified, attributed examples, learn the basics in our guide to spotting counterfeit banknotes, and review our banknote legality guide before buying or shipping reproductions of currency across borders. If the story pulls you toward certified paper money generally, third-party graded world notes are the natural place to start.
Frequently asked questions
Are Operation Bernhard notes legal to own?
In most collecting markets, yes. The notes copy Bank of England white notes that were withdrawn decades ago, so they cannot pass as current money, and major grading services openly certify them as historical artifacts. Rules on owning reproductions of currency still vary by country, so check our banknote legality guide before buying or shipping internationally.
How can you tell a Bernhard forgery from a genuine white note?
Specialists have documented 28 differences between genuine white notes and Bernhard forgeries, according to Paper Money Guaranty. One well-known marker sits in the Britannia vignette, where a leaf line stops abruptly on the forgeries but continues smoothly on genuine notes. Known serial prefix ranges also help, but no single check is conclusive, so certified examples are the safest buy.
How many counterfeit notes did Operation Bernhard produce?
Postwar figures compiled by Chief Inspector William Rudkin of the Metropolitan Police, cited by the Bank of England Museum, put output at about 8.9 million notes with a total face value of £134,610,945 across £5, £10, £20, and £50 denominations.
What happened to the prisoners who did the forging?
As the war ended, the SS moved the unit from Sachsenhausen to Mauthausen and then to the Redl-Zipf tunnels in Austria in early 1945. The prisoners ended up at Ebensee concentration camp, where they were liberated in May 1945. Adolf Burger, who worked in the unit, survived and later wrote the memoir behind the film The Counterfeiters.
Is the film The Counterfeiters historically accurate?
It is grounded in fact but dramatized. The 2007 Austrian-German film is based on Adolf Burger's memoir, and Burger advised the production, but the lead character Salomon Sorowitsch is a fictionalized version of the real forger Salomon Smolianoff. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008.
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