Our Passports

1942 Syrian Republic (Mandate era 1930-46) passport with travel to British Palestine, Egypt & Saudi Arabia (rare destination!).

Warsaw Ghetto postcard.

Document with letterhead and signature of SS-Gruppenführer Jürgen Stroop who liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto following the April 19th uprising that broke out on the eve of Passover, 1943. Its' his personal request to update his files for receiving the Infantry Badge earlier.

Coupons and an ID issued to a British soldier in the Middle East during #WW2.

1930's Chinese visa from Shanghai, not valid for travel to or through military zones (right side applied rubber stamp).

Manchurian Diplomatic visa by Wén Zhōng Yòu (文鍾佑), consular officer who signed off most of the visas issued at the embassy in Imperial Japan (Tokyo).

1940 Spanish escape passport issued in Toulouse.

German issued factory ID. These incased into special metal holders were produced to ensure antifraud and preventing them from being reused by "unauthorized" elements.

Internal Soviet passport issued to a Jewish man in occupied Poland, 1940. Though no record can be found on him, we can assume, sadly, that he did not survive the German invasion that followed the following year.

Superb examples from the Middle East & Gulf states, 1951-68.

German issued Ostbahn workers ID with extensions applied revenue stamps up to mid-44'. The Ostbahn was the German railways "branch" in occupied Poland during WW2 and used to deport Jews to the German death camps.

1943 Spanish passport issued in Athens to a Jewish couple. The life-saving document was issued by famed Spanish Diplomat Sebastián de Romero Radigales who during the war saved several hundred of the Jewish Sepharadic community of Salonika, Greece.

Genrikh Yagoda was a high-ranking NKVD official who for a brief moment headed the dreaded organization as well (1934-36). Had an extensive collection of pornografia and orchids. His life ended with a bullet to the back of the head in 1938.

1807 Sylvanus Bourne, US consul in Amsterdam, signed document.

A survivor from the ship “Pentcho” that due to rough seas was shipwrecked at the Aegean Sea in 1940. The ill-fated vessel was carrying over 500 refugees.

British Colony of Aden passport, 1940.

Another example of a Swiss issued SCHUTZPASS, but this one comes from occupied Paris, a lesser-known location for such life-saving documents (signed by Henri de Torrènté).

Life-saving Swiss Schutzpass were issued under the hand of Carl Lutz, Swiss diplomat in occupied Budapest. The example here seems to be a duplicate issued possibly due to the loss of the original example, also in 1944.

Postwar refugee press ID, occupied Germany.

Weimar Republic diplomatic passport extensions...

German passports issued to Jews with the applied red J on the covers are much scarcer, these were issued after Himmler's decree frum July 7th, 1941. Most examples seen today are consular issues from Axis or neutral countries.

One of my favorite wartime postcards: mailed from Davyd-Haradok (part of Poland 1921-39), then occupied by the USSR in 1940 followed by Germany the following year until 1944. Postcard here was mailed to a family member interned in Switzerland, note the censorship markings.

A selection of travel IDs issued in France for the stateless & refugees, 1930's-40's.

1821 Russian Empire Alexander I issued passport to a French merchant, issued in Saint Petersburg and signed by Governor General Mikhail Miloradovich.

WW2 French Diplomatic passport issued in Rio de Janeiro.

1941 postcard sent from Otwock and stamped by the Judenrat. The sender was Malka Kalisz, wife of Rabi Yitzhak Kalisz. She and the rest of the Jewish population were deported to the German death camp of Treblinka during the months of August-September the following year.

Rare example from the 1960's.

Long journey ends: a German J stamped passport used for reaching Israel 10 years later. Not a common document portraying NS applied markings and a State of Israel endorsements. Reaching Haifa with such a document would shock the immigration officer I would say!

New Delhi issued pilot license, 1933.

1929 US consular passport from Tokyo.