German war Soldbuch
used for 6 years throughout the entire war. Very interesting document issued days before the eruption of hostilities...
MI6 agent who issued lifesaving visas – Turkey WW2
A diplomat who did the right thing. By now we are all familiar with the Righteous among the Nations, those individuals who put their life at risk and issued all the assistance possible, at the time, in order to do the right thing, showed us...
CBI related document
1942 Kunming issued military ID. The conflict in the Far East had several important fronts and areas of battle. One important location was the region between British India and Western China, still under National Government control, and Japanese occupied Burma, which saw some of t...
First liberation documentation
Austrian first attempts of issuing ID's & travel documents. Austria was under German occupation from March 1938 to April 1945. The German take-over of the small country is termed as the Anschluss, and once under Nazi control, the Jews suffered the worst vile anti-Semitism since...
WW2 related Siamese document
1941 ID issued to a Jewish merchant. This is one of the most intriguing and unique items relating to the Second World War that I have seen, and though it was not a passport, it would still fit nicely into the category of travel related...
1948 interim travel document
Israel's "first" travel permits for overseas. The document here was most likely printed around April or May of 1948 and was meant to be used as a travel document or together with a passport (British or foreign) for leaving the Mandate during the interim period...
Very early US passport circular – 1808
US diplomatic mission in Spain. A lovely early Americana official State Department related circular. The document was hand written and signed by US senior diplomat to Spain George W. Erving (1769-1850). His posting to Madrid, as Chargי d'Affaires (the ‘ambassador’ was James Bowdoin III), started...
Israel Government Printer 1948 – 1953
Printers of Passports & Travel Documents as well. Israel “inherited” it’s Government Printer (GP) from the terminated British Mandate in 1948. Originally established in an old winery, in what was a German settlement colony called Sharona. The Winery went bankrupt and it turned into a...
German passport paper usage
Post-War use for lottery in 1945. Here is a fine example of post-war paper shortage usage. After the war there was an acute shortage of paper manufacturing, and we can find this in liberated countries throughout Europe and even as far as in China. Many...