This extremely interesting Nazi German passport lot was issued 18 January 1939 to Willy Arthur Israel Salingre, a Chief Engineer (Oberingenieur) from Berlin and his wife Jenny Sara Salingre. Both passports contain a full page visa issued by the Consul of Chile in Berlin. The couple emigrated to Chile via Hamburg harbor by ship on 1 March 1939 and arrived 3 April 1939 in Chile. Before they left the exchanged a handful of Reichsmark into $4.00 USD at a bank in Berlin, also documented by several rubber stamps.

The big letter "J" on the first page in the passport instantly identified the owner as a Jew (see photo below). Since 1938 the so called "Judenstempel" (Jew Stamp), a big red letter "J" was stamped into the passports of Jews by the Nazi German authorities. Besides that Nazi racial laws made it mandatory that every Jewish female had to take on the middle name Sara and every Jewish male the middle name Israel. Not every country allowed Jews to enter the country at that time and because of the "Judenstempel" a lot of Jews were probably rejected. They either had to find a different route out of Nazi Germany or remain under Nazi control and live under constant danger!