VERY RARE ORIGINAL THIRD REICH

"J" MARKED NAZI PASSPORT FOR A JEW

ISSUED TO A MALE JEW FROM FRANKFURT WHO MANAGED TO GET OUT OF GERMANY IN 1939!

This extremely interesting Nazi German passport was issued 3 December 1938 to Gustav Mattes, a salesman from Frankfurt. He first tried to emigrate to Uruguay but his request was denied by the German auhorities in 1938. His passport contains a full page visa issued by the Consul of Chile in Berlin. He departed to South America via Amsterdam (another stamp of the Consulate of Chile in Amsterdam). Furthermore there are three different visa entries of Panama, one from the consulate in Frankfurt and two that were issued at the Panama border. He entered Chile on 7 October 1939.

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 for 1 January 1939 on every Jewish female had to take on the middle name Sara and every Jewish male the middle name Israel. Because this passport that is offered for sale here had been issued in 1938 Gustav Mattes was not required to take on the middle name Israel. The "J" stamped passports were only valid for one year (!) and if Mr Mattes would have renewed his passport in 1939 he would have been required to take on 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!