Bidspirit auction | (HOLOCAUST). Deutsches Reich Reisepass. Passport

(HOLOCAUST). Deutsches Reich Reisepass. Passport of an Austrian Jew who fled Vienna and found sanctuary in Eretz Israel. Including endorsed stamps by the GERMAN NAZI CONSULATE IN JAFFA, PALESTINE.  Printed document with manuscript additions and photograph of the bearer, Dr. Hermann Haller. pp. 32, Original printed wrappers, light wear. 12mo. Vienna, August, 1938.    A rare German Third Reich passport issued to an Austrian Jew, stamped with a red ‘J’ (for ‘Jew’), with the Nazi-mandated added middle name ‘Israel, ’ and with an ink stamp of the Nazi German Consulate in Jaffa, Palestine.     This German Third Reich passport was issued in Vienna on August 24, 1938 to Dr Hermann Haller. In October 1938 it was stamped with a large red ‘J’ (‘Jude’) to indicate that the holder is a Jew. The purpose of the red J was to make it easier for Nazi security guards to easily identify Jews in Germany and Nazi-occupied territories.     The passport’s visa and transit ink stamps attest to the route and timetable of the bearer’s escape from Nazi Germany to Palestine: On January 26,1939 Haller was granted a visa to Palestine by the British consulate in Vienna, “for admission to Palestine not later than March 31, 1939.” For the visa he paid a fee of 13 shillings and sixpence, as shown by the attached Consular Service stamps. In preparation for his journey, on February 15, Haller purchased £8 at the Nazi Devisenstelle (foreign exchange) in Vienna. He left Austria one week later, on February 22, arriving by rail at the town of Tarvisio in northern Italy, near the Austrian border. He then traveled to Venice and on February 25 departed Italy by boat on his way to Palestine. Haller arrived at Haifa Port on March 2, and a few days later, on March 6, 1939 he transited to Tel Aviv where he started his new life in Eretz Israel.     Most surprisingly, on August 4, 1939 Haller took this passport to the German Nazi consulate in Jaffa, where it was stamped with the Jaffa Nazi consular ink stamp and the derogatory middle name ‘Israel’ was officially added to his name in the passport. Why Dr Haller decided to approach the Nazi consulate in Jaffa after living safely for five months as a free man in Palestine remains a mystery. Whatever the case may be, his bizarre decision created a rare and unique document: A Nazi Germany passport to a Jew, J-stamped, and with a Jaffa Nazi consular ink stamp. The Nazi consulate in Jaffa was closed less than a month later, upon the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939.