German issued passport – Gestapo issue

 

Very unusual and historically important 1934 German passport.

 

Julius Hamburger applied for the standard German passport and it was issued to him on November 7th, 1934, at Hanau.

Julius was a normal German, who at Langenselbold attended elementary school. Later he had his commercial apprenticeship completed at Aschaffenburg. He then joined his family’s factory in Langenselbold.

He did military service during World War One from 1917 to 1918 and in the early 1920’s he decided to open his own carpentry shop at the same city. This developed into a furniture factory around 1926 and he then changed his trade into the one of manufacturing. He would have spent most likely the rest of his life in Germany had the Nazi party not come to power in 1933.

 

Due to the worsening of conditions for the German Jews and increase of Anti-Semitism, he and his family made the decision to immigrate to British Palestine, leave his beloved Germany. The German passport was ready and issued to him on November 7th, 1934…

 

Going over the pages in this passport, one can find “two” issuing dates: seems the original passport issued back in 1934 was confiscated by the Gestapo when the holder returned back to Germany from Palestine; and “re-issued” to him again a year later in 1935 by changing the first original title page only.

 

The passport from November 7th, 1934, was used for a trip to Palestine arriving there on November 22nd, 1934 (applying for the visa at the British consulate in Frankfurt, depositing the high sum of money needed for guarantying that he will return back to Germany within a specific period of time). Julius Hamburger came back to Germany via Trieste & Austria through Salzburg on June 12, 1935.

 

He was presumably arrested by police or Gestapo shortly after his return, because he was called a ” re-migrant “:

 

On January 28th, 1935, the Geheime Staatspolizeiamt in Berlin enacted a decree, that German emigrants (or people, who spent a longer term abroad), returning to the country (re-migrants) are to be arrested and sent to a concentration camp for “re-education”, either to Concentration Camp Dachau or Concentration Camp Esterwegen. The decree was mainly focused on Jewish people or political opponents, because it was assumed, that they initiated or supported anti-German actions or propaganda abroad.

 

In Esterwegen the passport was renewed or “newly issued” by the political department of the Concentration Camp: The Kriminalsekretär, who signed the passport, possibly Gestapo member Heinrich Kortenstädde. In Esterwegen camp he was head of the political department, which was under command of the Gestapo and among other things responsible for in-or outgoing prisoners.

 

The holders new photo was applied and hand-stamped “Konzentrationslager Esterwegen – Der Koammandant”.
After that Julius Hamburger used the passport to return to Palestine via Basel and Italy in December 1935.

 

The registration office of Hamburgers hometown Langenselbold remarked that his wife Meta was taken to a “Lager” in Kassel on July 12th, 1935 and released on November 30th, 1935 for Palestine.

 

Most likely one of a kind Gestapo issued passport: one would think they would hide their actions from the public and the international community….

 

Added images of the passport and their British Mandate citizenship papers as well.

 

 

 

Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.