Passports of German Jews

Introduction By Peter Landé

· Background
· Database
· Acknowledgements
· Searching the Database

Background

In the 1930s and even in 1940-1941, before major deportations, the Nazi regime was pleased when German Jews emigrated, since this facilitated the seizure of their property and the stripping of their citizenship.  Jews who had been arrested for various reasons were often released when they could demonstrate that they intended to leave the country.  However, the regime also wanted to know as much as possible about each person and lists were developed giving such information as profession, wealth, correspondence with relatives outside Germany and passports.  Some of these collections of information were found at the end of World War II by the Russians and taken to Moscow.  Some years ago permission was given to the USHMM to microfilm this material.

The following collection is a list of 500 German Jews who held passports.  The information on each person consists of family, maiden and given names, profession, place of residence, place and date of birth and date and, finally, name of the office which issued the passport, when it was issued and when it expired.  (Although the given names Sara and Israel were imposed by the Nazis and have no real basis, they are included in the database to fully represent all information from the source documents.)  All the information in this file has been entered in the database.

The file does not indicate whether the person actually succeeded in escaping Germany.  Further information on these individuals can be obtained by consulting the May 1939 census (available at LDS Family History Library) and various memorial books issued by the Bundesarchiv and various city and local archives.

Database

This database includes 500 Jewish passport holders and their information.  The fields of the database are as follows:

Explanatory Notes:
     German English
     Amtsbürgermeister Mayor
     Amtsvorsteher Office Supervisor
     Ausland erweitert Landrat Teltow      County Administrator - Teltow (near Berlin)
     Bürgermeister Mayor
     General Konsulat Berlin Consulate General Berlin
     Konsulat Consulate
     Landrat Beeskow County Administrator - Beeskow
     Landratsamt Genthin County Administration - Genthin
     Oberbürgermeister Mayor
     Ortspolizeibehörde Local Police Force
     Polizeiamt Hindenburg Police Office - Hindenburg
     Polizeibehörde Police Administration
     Polizeidirektor Police Director
     Polizeipräsident Police President
     Polizeipräsidium Police Presidium
     Polizei-Präsidium Police Presidium
     Regierungsinspektor State Inspector
     Stadt City

Acknowledgments

The information contained in this database was indexed from the files of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM File RG 11.011M reel 17).  Special thanks to Shimon Neumann, a JewishGen volunteer, who compiled the list.

In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible.  Special thanks to Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy.  Particular thanks to the Research Division headed by Joyce Field and to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.

Nolan Altmanr
November, 2007


Searching the Database

This database is searchable via JewishGen's Holocaust Database and the JewishGen Germany Database.


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Last Update: 28 Mar 2008 by MFK