Double J stamped German passport
Rare 1942 (!) consular issue.
When it comes to German J stamped Jewish passports, nothing can be more unique or rare than a late war issued sample. The later the issue date for such a passport appears, the more it becomes harder to locate, simply because by October of 1941, under a special decree by Reinhard Heydrich, it was forbidden by Jews to leave any territory under the control of the Third Reich. Therefore, any German passports issued to Jews afterwards would have to be issued in either neutral or Axis countries, by the German diplomatic missions located in those countries (Besides adding the large J at the top of each title page to a passport that was issued to a Jew, the addition of the name Israel was added to a male and Sara to a female. This began to appear around January of 1939. All these means were done in order to enable other countries to recognize when a Jews was trying to enter the country or apply for a visa at a consulate).
As one who collects and researches such passports, a few years ago I stumbled across an example with another large J applied to its cover, and this was odd. I did not come across any material that explained this or have I seen such an example before. This would mean some good old-fashioned research and digging into archives. After several weeks, the answer was solved.
It appears that in late 1940, a German senior diplomat posted to the Far East, to the occupied Chinese city of Mukden (沈阳 (Shenyang)) Manchukuo, was very ‘instrumental’ and wrote an official request to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin (November 1st), suggesting that another large J be applied to the passport covers of Jews, in order to make sure that when they travel abroad, they will not be mistaken for “proper civilized Germans”, since their loud and very noisy behavior on trains was disturbing and might give the foreigners the wrong impression. This diplomat was consul-general Ernst Ramm who arrived in Manchuria in 1940 and was arrested by the red Army on August 21st 1945 and died in captivity, Moscow of 1950 (added an image of his Diplomatic passport used while serving in Mukden). Himmler approved this on July 7th 1941.
The passport here is extra special, not only because of it being a consular issue from Bulgaria, but of the LATE DATE it was issued at! 1942! Seems the holder was a Jewish local woman who married a former Czechoslovakian Jewish man, this could explain her being issued a German passport and also possibly losing her original national status as well. The passport was issued at the German consulate at Ruse (another sampled visa issued at the same consulate and by the same diplomat is added here as well). Though it is not used, it has additional SN added to the title page and markings on the cover, all done for the purpose of some sort of registration, by who, and why, this still needs to be solved.
I am incredibly pleased to add this superb rarity into my collection.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
