# WWII passports for German Jews **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2010, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670 "2010-01-20T05:59:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/1 "2010-01-20T05:59:18Z")
After the Nazis took power, but before the outbreak of the war, did German Jews have their religion printed in their passports? As in, if someone looked at their passport, would their religion be visible along with their name, photo, etc? ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/2 "2010-01-20T06:06:06Z")
Those German Jews without obviously Jewish names were required to take specific middle names, ‘Israel’ for men and ‘Sarah’ for women, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/3 "2010-01-20T06:44:34Z")
> [@Wikipedia](#): > > In August 1938, German authorities decreed that by January 1, 1939, Jewish men and women bearing first names of “non-Jewish” origin had to add “Israel” and “Sara,” respectively, to their given names. All Jews were obliged to carry identity cards that indicated their Jewish heritage, and, in the autumn of 1938, all Jewish passports were stamped with an identifying letter “J”. [(link)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Jewish_legislation_in_prewar_Nazi_Germany) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/4 "2010-01-20T06:48:33Z")
They were also required to wear a large Star of David on their clothing. Making them a convenient target for any thugs on the street that wanted to attack them. ---
**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/5 "2010-01-20T07:27:37Z")
Thank you, everyone! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/6 "2010-01-20T09:06:20Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > They were also required to wear a large Star of David on their clothing. Making them a convenient target for any thugs on the street that wanted to attack them. That wasn’t until after the war started, though. German Jews didn’t start having to wear a Star of David until September of 1941, even though Jews in most of German occupied territory had to start wearing them before that. Deportations from Germany started in October of that year, and Germany was officially declared judenrein in May of 1943. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/7 "2010-01-20T14:53:16Z")
I have a slightly different question: how did the nazis purge the jews from the economy? I mean, many senior executives of german firms (like IG Farben) were jews-also, a large number of university professors were jews as well. I mean, the jews were a major part of german business and education-did they just fire all these guys en mass? What about the army? I assume there were quite a few jews in the officer corps. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/8 "2010-01-20T15:15:36Z")
Holding passports was one thing. Getting visas was another. Some Jews were allowed to leave but many others were expressly denied visas so that they couldn’t travel and escape the Nazi persecution. Those who did escape were therefore officially stateless and no country would take them in. That’s why they mostly went to Shanghai’s International Settlement. That was something we’ve eliminated in today world, an area inside a country controlled by foreign countries. The number of Jews who escaped to the [Shanghai Ghetto](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Ghetto) is estimated at 20,000, though not all were Germans. To answer Ralph’s question, the total number of Jews in Germany was very small. It was like the U.S. in that way. Although they were disproportionately in professional and business capacities, their small absolute numbers meant that they could be removed without major economic dislocation. [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005469](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005469) > [@](#): > > In January 1933, some 522,000 Jews by religious definition lived in Germany. Over half of these individuals, approximately 304,000 Jews, emigrated during the first six years of the Nazi dictatorship, leaving only approximately 214,000 Jews in Germany proper (1937 borders) on the eve of World War II. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/9 "2010-01-20T15:25:21Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I have a slightly different question: how did the nazis purge the jews from the economy? I mean, many senior executives of german firms (like IG Farben) were jews-also, a large number of university professors were jews as well. I mean, the jews were a major part of german business and education-did they just fire all these guys en mass? > What about the army? I assume there were quite a few jews in the officer corps. I don’t know about the army, but elsewhere things were made more and more uncomfortable for them, hoping they’d quit. Those who didn’t were fired, although if the person had history of WWI service, especially if a volunteer and even moreso if decorated, they were the last to get the boot. Similarly for those married to non-Jews (although this was often applied capriciously). For a tremendously insightful analysis and description of your question and many others, I cannot recommend highly enough , “[I Will Bear Witness (1933 - 1941)](http://www.amazon.com/Will-Bear-Witness-1933-1941-Paperbacks/dp/0375753788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264000443&sr=1-1)” and “[I Will Bear Witness (1942 - 1945)](http://www.amazon.com/Will-Bear-Witness-1942-1945-Diary/dp/0375756973/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264000443&sr=1-2)” by Victor Klemperer. Klemperer was a Jewish professor of French literature at Dresden University. As a WWI volunteer and being married to a gentile, he managed to stay and survive in Dresden until the day of its infamous firebombing. The books are no more than the diary he kept during the Nazi epoch, yet are powerful literature. They tell a unique story to say the least, written by a peceptive and thoughtful man. One example: Within _weeks_ of Hitler’s ascension to power and immediate demonstration of oppression and irrationality, Klemperer wrote that he doubted whether the word “Führer” would ever again be used by a German leader. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/10 "2010-01-20T16:02:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Holding passports was one thing. Getting visas was another. Some Jews were allowed to leave but many others were expressly denied visas so that they couldn’t travel and escape the Nazi persecution. Why wouldn’t they let them leave? I would think any way to get rid the jews would have been acceptable. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/11 "2010-01-20T16:10:23Z")
> [@](#): > > I have a slightly different question: how did the nazis purge the jews from the economy? I mean, many senior executives of german firms (like IG Farben) were jews-also, a large number of university professors were jews as well. I mean, the jews were a major part of german business and education-did they just fire all these guys en mass? > What about the army? I assume there were quite a few jews in the officer corps. If I recall correctly, laws were passed fairly early in the Nazi era making it illegal for Jews to teach Christians, so Jewish professors were fired. Businesses were another era which were relatively easy to purge. For every Jewish businessman there was some Christian who was his competitor and was willing to step in and replace him. I believe the army was one of the safest places for a Jew. The military was one of the few institutions in Nazi Germany which maintained some immunity to Nazi regulation. In order to get army support for its wider objectives, the Nazis had agreed to allow the military to police itself to a large degree. So Jews could hide in the military and not worry about random Gestapo investigations uncovering them. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/12 "2010-01-20T16:18:58Z")
One of the more chilling Holocaust footage shows a line of prisoners being lead into a camp. At the end of the line is a very, very tall Nun in a habit. I always wonder how she got arrested. Germany had a large catholic population and the Nazis usually left the church alone. But, this Nun was taken and presumably suffered the same fate as the Jews. I don’t have a site. I’ve seen that footage on several documentaries about the Holocaust. I always wondered if the Nun survived. Odds are, she didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/13 "2010-01-20T16:25:31Z")
> [@](#): > > I mean, many senior executives of german firms (like IG Farben) were jews-also, a large number of university professors were jews as well. Albert Einstein and many others like him saw that bad times were coming, and left Germany before the persecutions got too bad. This brain drain was probably one of the reasons why Nazi weapons programs like the intercontinental bomber and the A-bomb (thankfully) didn’t go anywhere. Lise Meitner, perhaps the single most important person in the development of nuclear fission, was another Jew who fled the Nazis, and Erwin Schrödinger, though not Jewish, left because of his personal opposition to Nazism. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/14 "2010-01-20T16:38:09Z")
Well, it didn’t take long to find the Nun on google. This is probably the one I saw in the footage. She was gassed within 2 weeks of entering the camp. > **[Edith Stein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Stein)** > > Edith Stein (religious name Saint Teresia Benedicta a Cruce OCD; also known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or Saint Edith Stein; 12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She is canonized as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church; she is also one of six patron saints of Europe. > She was born into an observant Jewish family, but had become an agnostic by her teenage years. Moved by the tragedies ... ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/15 "2010-01-20T16:51:49Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > One of the more chilling Holocaust footage shows a line of prisoners being lead into a camp. At the end of the line is a very, very tall Nun in a habit. I always wonder how she got arrested. Germany had a large catholic population and the Nazis usually left the church alone. But, this Nun was taken and presumably suffered the same fate as the Jews. [Edith Stein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Stein) was a nun and a convert to Catholicism from Judaism. She was sent to Auschwitz from the Netherlands, and was gassed there. The Dutch Bishops’ Conference had condemned Nazi racism, and the Reichscomissar of the Netherlands retaliated by ordering the arrest of all Jewish converts to Christianity. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/16 "2010-01-20T16:53:57Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Why wouldn’t they let them leave? I would think any way to get rid the jews would have been acceptable. Visas are issued by the country that you’re going to, not the country you’re leaving. There were a lot of restrictions against Jews taking their property out of Germany, so the Jews who left had to leave everything behind, but before the war, the Nazis encouraged Jews to leave. It was the rest of the world that refused to let them in. > [@Chronos\[/quote](#): > > Albert Einstein and many others like him saw that bad times were coming, and left Germany before the persecutions got too bad. Not Einstein in particular, though. He had been living in Switzerland since 1896 (to go to school and avoid conscription), and was a Swiss citizen when the Nazis came to power. It was true of Meitner, though, as well as the many others you refer to. > [@](#): > > I believe the army was one of the safest places for a Jew. The military was one of the few institutions in Nazi Germany which maintained some immunity to Nazi regulation. In order to get army support for its wider objectives, the Nazis had agreed to allow the military to police itself to a large degree. So Jews could hide in the military and not worry about random Gestapo investigations uncovering them. There weren’t a lot of Jews in the German army, even before the Nazis came to power, especially among the officer corps. (This is, of course, excepting the World War I years, when the army took anyone.) There was a long tradition of anti-Semitism in the German officer corps, and Jews in the army faced a lot of hurdles. After the Nazis came to power, Jews were forbidden to serve in the army, and _Mischelinges_ (people of mixed Jewish and non-Jewish ancestry) were forbidden to serve from 1940. That being said, there’s an interesting book called _Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers_, which is a study of Jews, primarily Mischlinges, who served in the army, and their stories. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/17 "2010-01-20T17:11:57Z")
The Nazis did have a large Catholic poulation, and there was a lot of unrest among the more devout and outright (but discrete and quiet) subversion in the heirarchy. However, by and large Germans thought of themselves as Germans first, and generally did whatever the government told them to regardless of religion. They joined the army, oppressed and even murdered Catholics in Poland as well as Orthodox, and so forth just like other Germans. In the early days, Hitler was seen as a nasty man but not recognized as the murderous tyrant - remember, this was when Mussolini was his forerunner and generally seen as a tolerable, if tyrannical, man and much admired by the elites, and was particularly favored by Communists, socialists in geenral, and the literary Leftist sort. Figuring they would have to deal with him, the Vatican more or elss cut a deal where they accepted not openly preachign against him if he would respect Church property and persons. Well… Hitler broke his end quickly and things went downhill from there. He never _too_ openly assaulted the Church within Germany. He did, however, make sure to imprison the more outspoken opponents within the Church in Germany. Outside it was a different matter. Huge massacres wiped out most of the priests, as well as the scholars and politicians, of Poland. While there are still arguments that the Pope should have done “something” more than he did (which in general I dismiss as ignorant or wishful thinking), the Church within Germany worked to funnel jews, particularly Jewish converts to Catholicism, to safety. Now, onto more OP-related matters. It was certainly possible in the early days to get out. If you moved fast enough, it was even financially viable. The issue was that the Nazis actually undercut their own efforts. Sure, Jews in Germany initially didn’t realize how bad things would get, having experienced many previous waves of antisemitism. Plus, the Nazis did not open up with massed pograms like the Czars. But the Nazis built up restrictions that tried very hard to take everything from those Jews who left - forcing them to liquidate all property and taxing them hugely. As such, getting even enough money not to arrive starving and destitute was a major challenge. And of course, their gradual efforts to strip Jews from virtually any paying work was a major issue, as well, because it reduced the resources available. Now, after the invasion of Poland (and shortly thereafter, France), there was really no further way to get out. You could basically smuggle yourself out, and that was it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/18 "2010-01-20T17:22:36Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Not Einstein in particular, though. He had been living in Switzerland since 1896 (to go to school and avoid conscription), and was a Swiss citizen when the Nazis came to power. Einstein moved to Berlin in 1914 and left for the US a few months before the Nazis came to power. He did see first-hand some of the persecution (he was a target, though was never physically attacked) and certainly would have lost his job as a professor as soon as the Nazis took over. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/19 "2010-01-20T23:48:36Z")
Even to get a passport took some doing, and (IIRC) an exit visa. At first they were prepared to let Jews leave, if they disposed of all their assets at firesale prices. Later they started moving towards the view that the Jews would have to be exterminated from Europe, not just displaced elsewhere where they could (supposedly in the Nazi world view) continue to work to undermine Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/20 "2010-01-21T00:06:18Z")
This has often been an interesting debate for modern Swiss historians: whose idea was it to stamp the passports of German Jews with a red J? Apologists for Switzerland will say it is not clear. Example (minimizing Switzerland’s responsibility) [Holocaust: Jewish Refugees in Switzerland during World War II](http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/holocaust-jewish-refugees-switzerland.html) (geshichte-schweiz.ch) > [@](#): > > Finally Germany decided to mark passports of Jews with a stamp (“J”) in October 1938. There is a broad controversy (also on internet) about who is responsible for this discriminating idea. These are the really important facts: The Swiss authorities wanted to know, whether a person trying to enter Switzerland was of Jewish origin or not, and they didn’t want to find out themselves - much like the U.S. administration is nowadays interested, whether a person flying from Europe to the U.S.A. is of Arab origin or not, and forces carriers to deliver personal informations about passengers (see reports in the European press in March and again in December 2003). Today’s Swiss government acknowledges that Switzerland had its share in the affair with the J-stamp and publicly apologized on 8th March 1995. another viewpoint here (mentioning accusations against Swiss police) [http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/judentum-aktenlage/hol/joint/Bauer\_joint06-23-reactions-Switzerland-J-stamp-ENGL.html](http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/judentum-aktenlage/hol/joint/Bauer_joint06-23-reactions-Switzerland-J-stamp-ENGL.html) (geschichteinchronologie.ch) > [@](#): > > The accusation was later leveled against the chief of the Swiss alien police, Dr. Heinrich Rothmund, that he had initiated the branding of Jews by this special passport symbol by suggesting the idea to the Nazis. Be that as it may, it is quite clear that the Swiss police chief - and, what is more important, the Swiss government - gladly accepted the regulation that discriminated so blatantly between Jews and non-Jews, because it made it impossible for German Jews to enter Switzerland without a visa; “pure” Germans were, of course, free to enter Switzerland with no formalities. The only German demand to which the Swiss objected - not too strongly, it must be said, but with sufficient vigor to make the Germans abandon the idea - was that Swiss Jews wishing to visit Germany be required to obtain a visa and have their passports marked in some special way. In any case, this is one of the shameful episodes in Swiss history. The reasons for this attitude of the Swiss government are due to several reasons: anti-Jewish sentiment, the fear of being “overrun” with Jewish refugees from other parts of Europe, the desire to placate the Axis powers and ensure that Switzerland would be able to remain neutral during World War II. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670.md?page=2)