Polish Military Mission 1946
To the Allied Control Council in Germany.
Towards the end of World War Two the four powers agreed to establish in post-war Germany and Austria military liaison missions.
The western allies, who would form later on the western zones of occupied Germany (US, British and French) together with the Soviet Union, agreed to send a small amount of army personnel, with their supportive required staff, to the military zones that were controlled by the other occupying members. This was done for intelligence purposes at first (the first missions to open where the British-Soviet missions in 1946).
Later we would also find similar military liaison missions run by the following countries:
Holland, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Hungary and Poland. The documents in this article will relate to the Polish Military Mission to the Allied Control Council in Germany, that was opened in 1946 and issued special identity papers for their nationals wishing to return back home.
Two sets of documents have been issued by the military commission in Germany: For Polish nationals and for Polish citizens. For the former, the documents were issued with indication that the holder has proven his or her Polish nationality and thus has registered with the consular section of this Polish Military Mission in Berlin, though it also states that this certificate does not signify that the holder is a Polish citizen. As for the latter, it indicates at the top that the holder is a Polish citizen and this document would also be exchanged for a passport at a later stage.
These types of documents were the first attempts by the post-war Polish authorities to locate or register their nationals that were located in Germany and try to have them repatriated back home. The ID’s can be found with border & local registration markings for cities located inside Poland. They would also have an applied rubber stamp informing the holder that he or she should report to the local authorities for registration with 24 hours of crossing the border.
The end of the war in Europe meant that thousands of civilians would now have to find their way back home and get repatriated. This led to the establishment of formal organizations and governmental offices who would assist their nationals in providing the necessary documentation that would allow them to return and register themselves once they arrived back home. The sampled images in this article reflect such efforts from one country in Europe that was now liberated and wanted to assist its people to return. The Images are of the Polish Military Mission in Germany that issued ID documents for the years 1946, 1947 and 1948.
Additional images are of a Polish service passport used by an official serving at their diplomatic missions in occupied Germany during 1949-1950.
An example of a Czech liaison office issued visa from Germany in 1947.
Image of a Dutch military mission issued visa, but to Vienna, from 1946.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
Krzysztof Jakubowski
After the war tens of millions of civilians wandered across Europe, mostly in opposite directions. Some of them like Jews unwanted almost everywhere. Some like Russians forced to move back home to end up in Gulags.. Hundreds of thousands of Poles and Ukrainians exchanged across the new Soviet border with Poland. Not to mention millions of Germans displaced from the Eastern Europe.
I can’t imagine those millions of makeshift IDs produced by authorities.
Nobody can imagine human looses if then Europe gets struck by another Spanish flu or coronavirus. Armageddon still remains to come 🙂