# 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:** 2
**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 21, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/21 "2010-01-21T00:15:05Z")
One of the odder German plans was to send the Jews to Palestine. > **[Haavara Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haavara_Agreement)** > > The Haavara Agreement (Hebrew: הֶסְכֵּם הַעֲבָרָה, romanized: heskem haavara, lit. 'transfer agreement') was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist organizations signed on 25 August 1933. The agreement was finalized after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank (under the directive of the Jewish Agency) and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany. It was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Pal... > [@](#): > > The Haavara Agreement was signed on 25 August 1933 after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank (under the orders of the Jewish Agency, an official executive agency in then Palestine) and the economic authorities of the Nazi regime of Germany. The agreement was designed to help facilitate the emigration of German Jews to Palestine. While it helped Jews emigrate, it forced them to give up most of their possessions to Germany before departing. Those assets could later be obtained by transferring them to Palestine as German export goods.[1] Approximately 50,000 Jews emigrated to Palestine under this agreement. The main proponent of the Ha’avara Agreement was Haim Arlosoroff. ---
**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, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/22 "2010-01-21T00:22:31Z")
Another odd plan (originating in the USA!) was to invite Jewish refugees to Alaska. I learned of this when reading the “alternate history” novel _The Yiddish Policemen’s Union_ by Michael Chabon, and was surprised that the novel was based on fact: a proposal by secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. see this article for a short synopsis of the plan: [A Thanksgiving plan to save Europe’s Jews](http://www.jstandard.com/index.php/content/item/A_Thanksgiving_plan_to_save_Europes_Jews/3377) ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/23 "2010-01-21T00:27:33Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > 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. Also, as has been discussed here on SBMB before, Switzerland (as a whole) is just not very welcoming to foreigners in general, and in my experience is about the most insular country in W. Europe. ---
**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, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/24 "2010-01-21T00:44:22Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Switzerland (as a whole) is just not very welcoming to foreigners in general, and in my experience is about the most insular country in W. Europe. Including the Vatican? If you are a tourist with sufficient $ or € the Swiss will welcome you with open arms. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/25 "2010-01-21T00:52:38Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Including the Vatican? I forgot about them 😛 And as far as Switzerland being ready willing and able to seperate a tourist from their disposable income, you are spot on. The average prices in Bern or Zurich make cities like Brussels or Frankfurt look like bargain basement destinations in comparison. ---
**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 21, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/26 "2010-01-21T00:58:40Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > 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. The thing is, most countries did the same, for much the same reasons. ---
**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, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/27 "2010-01-21T01:31:06Z")
Maybe, but “the other kids are doing it too” never worked as an excuse for me with my mother. ---
**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 21, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/28 "2010-01-21T01:39:26Z")
Well, while I realize this might be more of a GD answer, I think if you asked a Swiss government official at the time, he’d probably tell you that there’s no national interest in allowing large numbers of foreign refugees, large numbers of whom are poor, into the country. If the Germans are persecuting their citizens, that’s certainly unfortunate for the people being persecuted, but it’s a German internal matter, and not Switzerland’s problem. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/29 "2010-01-21T12:37:35Z")
> [@filmyak](#): > > 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? If I’m not terribly mistaken, every country had people’s religions on their passports, at least until the early 1970s. IIRC, when I looked at my mother’s passport, issued in 1970, it had Roman Catholic printed on it. Could be wrong, tho. hh ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/30 "2010-01-21T16:41:40Z")
The Nazis also seriously looked into sending Jews to Madagascar, off the SE coast of Africa: [Madagascar Plan - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_Plan) > [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > …Outside it was a different matter. Huge massacres wiped out most of the priests, as well as the scholars and politicians, of Poland… The Soviets did their foul part, as well: [Katyn (rural locality) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_Forest) ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/31 "2010-01-21T17:49:34Z")
My grandfaather left Germany in the mid 1930s- I’m not sure exactly of the year, but it was after 1935 and before 1939. His wife wasn’t Jewish, and after the Nuremberg laws of 1935 made marriages between Jews and non-Jews illegal she had their marriage annulled to protect their two adopted sons (who were of non-Jewish parentage biologically). My grandfather was a low level judge- from what we can gather he was approached by Nazi party officials and told that his Jewishness could be forgotten and he could keep his job if he did as he was told at work. He packed a bag and left that night- overland through Luxembourg and then to Britain- which promptly denied him entry. He ended up in South Africa, working initially as a chicken farmer and thereafter as an accountant and book-keeper in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). His wife and their sons were killed during the war- she had tried to join him but was overtaken by the occupation of the Netherlands, where we believe they all died during the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940. He married my Grandmother in 1944. His brother wasn’t so lucky- he was a neurologist and psychiatrist and managed to stay safe for quite a long period of time because he had some patients who were Nazi high-ups (which is why he didn’t leave when my grandfather did). Of course that only lasted for a while and he ended up in the camps- he died either at Auschwitz itself or in the train on the way there. Our family is only piecing this together now- he never really spoke of this when he was alive, there must have been tremendous guilt about his brother and about his wife and sons. I know he felt that he would have been killed or imprisoned if he had refused the offer, and he could not accept it (obviously). ---
**Author:** ![Valeriejs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5e9695/32.png) [@Valeriejs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valeriejs)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/32 "2010-10-23T01:23:06Z")
I have a photocopy of a book with a German name that does not correspond to my keyboard. My best guess is aihnenpafs. Or may aufentafal. search engines have not been helpful. At any rate, what I have been told is these documents were compiled by non Jewish people in German controlled areas to document that they had no Jewish heritage going back five generations. It is a wealth of genealogy information too! It has been a great source for a line I am working on. If only I knew the correct word in English for the source. Valeriejs ---
**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:** [October 23, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/33 "2010-10-23T02:17:52Z")
> [@Valeriejs](#): > > I have a photocopy of a book with a German name that does not correspond to my keyboard. My best guess is aihnenpafs. Or may aufentafal. search engines have not been helpful. The word you’re looking for is Ahnenpass (ancestral passport). ---
**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:** [October 23, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/34 "2010-10-23T02:33:00Z")
> [@Valeriejs](#): > > At any rate, what I have been told is these documents were compiled by non Jewish people in German controlled areas to document that they had no Jewish heritage going back five generations. According to [the Wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahnenpass) at any rate, the _Ahnenpass_ was used by citizens of Germany and not in “German controlled areas”. As an aside, the criteria for its possession were much the same as, and maybe even identical to, those required to join the SS. Do you know anything about the original owner? ---
**Author:** ![\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/eada6e/32.png) [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/35 "2010-10-23T09:22:49Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > 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. You think that Hitler was supported by the left? The Nazis and the Communists were mortal enemies. The SA stormtroopers had a lot of streetfights with them even before Hitler came to power and communists were sent to KZs later. The opposition to Communism is one reason why Hitler was supported by the industrialists and old elites. [ > [@](#): > > The SA not only instigated street violence against Jews, Communists and Socialists […] ]([Sturmabteilung - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung)) > [@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. In the small town where I went to school in, there was a Jewish shop owner who was very well integated with the ethnic Germans. He was a commited member in most of the clubs in town, and wrote the songs for the carnival and the gun club which are still used today. He thought he would be safe in that environment, but he was boycotted and harrassed; I’ve spoken to people who were around in that time, and they felt it was too dangerous to support him in a meaningful way. He commited suicide in 1939. The elementary school is named for him today. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/36 "2010-10-23T18:31:06Z")
> [@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. In universities they were simply kicked out and Echtdeutsch appointed in their place. When someone asked David Hilbert, the greatest mathematician of his era, how was mathematics in Gottingen now that it was judenrein, he replied that there was no mathematics in Gottingen any more. This was sometime in the 30s. The publishing firm Springer-Verlag (founded by Julius Springer in the 19th century, no relation to Axel Springer), was simply confiscated from the Springer family and given to an “Aryan”. After the war, the Aryan gave it back, although he was under no legal obligation to do so under German law. It had been seized according to the law at the time. About 15 or 20 years ago, the last member of Springer family retired from the company (and it has gone to pot ever since). ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/37 "2010-10-23T18:37:32Z")
> [@filmyak](#): > > 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? For the Nazis, the important thing was the Jewish “blood” not the religion. That’s why Jews who had converted to Catholicsm or who were liberal/ agnostic (a lot of intelligent, mid-class people like lawyers and doctors) believed themselves to be safe and were suddenly targeted. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/38 "2010-10-23T18:57:41Z")
> [@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. In general, the Nazis followed the Salami-tactic: slowly increasing measures. Each measure by itself targeted only a certain group, so protests were not loud, but one after another stripped Jews from their rights. From the [German Wikipedia](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust#Nationalsozialistische_Verfolgung_der_deutschen_Juden)article (the first I could find, there’s a more detailed timeline of the laws passed elsewhere) > [@](#): > > \*Unmittelbar nach Hitlers Ernennung zum Reichskanzler am 30. Januar 1933 inszenierten NSDAP-Funktionäre „spontane“ Proteste gegen jüdische Beamte, störten Gerichtsverhandlungen und forderten in Zeitungsartikeln und Leserbriefen die Entfernung jüdischer Juristen aus ihren Berufen. Diese wurden aus ihren Praxen geprügelt, beraubt, teilweise aus Deutschland vertrieben oder ermordet. > > \*Immediatley after Hitler had been announced as Reichs Chancellor on 30th Jan. 1933, NSDAP-functionaries organized “spontaneous” protests against Jewish state officals, disrupted court proceedings and demanded in newspaper articles and letters to the Editor the removal of jewish lawyers from their jobs. They were beaten out of their offices, robbed, sometimes expelled from Germany or murdered. > > _Am 1. April 1933 organisierte das Regime mit Hilfe der SA den sogenannten Judenboykott, bei dem jüdische Geschäfte, Kanzleien und Arztpraxen vielfach zertrümmert und die Inhaber verprügelt wurden. Das Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums vom 7. April 1933 legalisierte die bisherigen „wilden“ Berufsverbote für Juden, indem es die Entlassung aller jüdischen Beamten vorsah. Auf einen Eingriff des Reichspräsidenten Paul von Hindenburg hin wurden davon die Juden ausgenommen, die schon vor 1914 im Staatsdienst gewesen waren, im Ersten Weltkrieg gekämpft oder dabei Angehörige verloren hatten („Frontkämpferprivileg“). Von nun an wurden Juden auch aus allen Ehrenämtern entfernt; sie erhielten nur noch begrenzten Zugang zu Schulen und Universitäten; jüdische Steuerberater verloren ihre Zulassung. Im April 1933 wurden zudem das Gesetz über die Zulassung zur Rechtsanwaltschaft vom 7. April, die Verordnung über die Zulassung von Ärzten zur Tätigkeit bei den Krankenkassen vom 22. April sowie das Gesetz gegen die Überfüllung deutscher Schulen und Hochschulen vom 25. April erlassen._ > > On April 1st, 1933\* the regime organized with the help of the SA the so-called Jew boycott, where jewish shops, offices and doctors offices often were dashed apart and the owners beaten. (The pictures show SA standing around the shops, detering customers from entering, with signs “Germans! Defend yourself! Don’t buy from Jews!”). The Law for the Restoration of State Offical from April 7th 1933 legalized the up-till-then unofficial job prohibitions against Jews by stating the dismissal of all jewish state officials.\*\* On iniative of Reichs president Paul von Hindenburg those Jews were excepted that had been employed for the state before 1914, had fought in WWI or lost relatives there (Front soldiers privilege). From now on, Jews were removed from all honor positions; they only had limited access to schools and universities; jewish tax advisors lost their license. In April 1933 additionaly the Law about the admission of lawyers from April 7th, the Rule about the admittance of doctors for health insurance from April 22nd and the Law against the Overfilling of German schools and Universities from April 25th were passed. > > snip > > _1935 verschlechterte sich die Lage vieler jüdischer Bürger nochmals drastisch: Sie wurden nicht mehr zu Prüfungen als Ärzte und Apotheker zugelassen und vom Wehrdienst ausgeschlossen. Zahlreiche Berufsverbände erteilten für sie mitsamt ihren Ehegatten Berufsverbote, z. B. als Haushaltshilfen, Gewerbelehrer, Kirchenmusiker, Kunst- und Antiquitätenhändler, Kinobetreiber, Schwimmmeister._ > > 1935 the situation for many jewish citizens again worsened: they were no longer admitted to the exams for doctors and apothecarys, they were dismissed from military service. Many trade organizations barred them and their spouses from working, e.g. as maids, trade teachers, church musicians, Art- and antique dealers, cinema manager, swim pool master. - That used to be April’s fools day. \*\* A state official is a lifetime job. Part of the last paragraph about the trade organizations also points at the disjointed applications. In the last decades, many organisations, whether it’s the Alpine Club, a big company like Siemens or an University, have finally decided to look at their own history and what they did to their Jewish members. Some clubs disbarred Jews before 1933, some universities got rid of Jewish and Communist professors as soon as the law was passed, esp. when there was already a lot of political fractions and fights at that university (some professors did not mind to get ahead in their subject by getting rid of the opposition, esp. those that were not as good as the opposition, but by sliming up to the Nazis, got ahead despite their own inadquacies). Other universities or hospitals kept their members and employees as long as they could, breaking the law beyond the stretching point. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/39 "2010-10-23T19:06:31Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > Why wouldn’t they let them leave? I would think any way to get rid the jews would have been acceptable. I just shortly leaved through a thick tome with the documents from Hitler and other high-ranking Nazis about the Jewish question. The summary basically said that they flip-flopped on how to deal with the Jews: on the one hand, they wanted to get rid of them because they were vermin and not only poisioning the German race, but also destabilising the German country, economy etc., and even exiling wouldn’t stop them - they would continue a hate campaign from abroad, both from the US, who was being run by the Jewish-capitalist conspiracy, after all, and from the USSR, which was being run by the Jewish-communist system, after all. On the other hand, they wanted to get money and loot from the Jews, and realized that killing millions of people had practical problems and would encounter disquiet from the normal German population. So one month it was “All Jews who pay thousands of Marks can go to Palestine, good riddance” and next month it was “the foreign press, riled up by those Jews in exile, is slandering Germany again - off with their heads!” It wasn’t outspoken, but there was an idea to use the German Jews as bargaining chip or hostages against the foreign powers. The other problem was: most countries didn’t want them. Visas were only given in limited numbers. Partly this was the logistics problem - taking in several millions of people is a strain on the economy and ressources. And partly it was that anti-semitism was ripe in other countries at that time, too. “No Jews, Niggers, dogs allowed at the swimming pool” was written on signs in New York (I think even after WWII). Thirdly, it took a long time for the Jews in Germany to realize that they weren’t being harrassed, they would be killed; and the rest of the world didn’t believe it for even longer. After all, in WWI, horror stories about German soldiers maiming Belgian children had been passed around, and those had turned out propaganda lies; surely the Nazis weren’t killing people? And we don’t want immigrants! ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670/40 "2010-10-23T19:15:47Z")
> [@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. > > 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. One of the most famous Nuns would be [Edith Stein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Stein)- she was born Jewish, but converted to Catholiscm. Again, because it was about blood and race, her religion didn’t save her (and the Vatican didn’t protest). There were also some Catholic Priests who went with their jewish school children whom they had taught into the KZ because they didn’t want to desert them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-passports-for-german-jews/525670.md?page=3)