Since the publication of Forging Secrets: Faces and Facts Inside the Nazi Operation Bernhard Scheme in 2022, the Spungen Foundation has continued to uncover more mysteries and information about the counterfeiting operation. This past autumn, we discovered a post card (still unresearched, at the time) in the Spungen Foundation postal collection with an incredible connection to Operation Bernhard.

Foundation researcher, Professor Kevin Ostoyich, set about to uncover all he could about the post card and its sender, “L. Fryd.”

The post card was written on December 11, 1941, by a woman in the Łódź ghetto named Hele. The sender was listed as “L. Fryd” and the sending address as “Matrosen Gasse.” Hele intended for the post card to be sent to her father, Henoch Kartovski, in Lutomiersk, Poland.

Ostoyich uncovered the identity of “L. Fryd” as Lejb Fryd, who was transported with his wife and daughter to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Fryd’s wife and daughter were murdered in the camp, but Fryd was selected for work in the counterfeiting operation due to his occupation as an engraver. He was sent from Auschwitz to Sachsenhausen where the top-secret operation was conducted in Blocks 18 and 19. Later, Fryd was liberated by the Americans along with the rest of the Operation Bernhard prisoners. After the war, Fryd immigrated to the United States, and, as Leon Fryd, ran an engraving business with fellow Operation Bernhard survivor, David J. Bialer, in New York City.

For the full story of Lejb Fryd and his connection to Hele’s post card and Operation Bernhard, you can read Kevin Ostoyich’s full article below: