Two Viennese Passports of Illegal Immigrants who were Deported to the Island of Mauritius

Two Viennese Passports of Illegal Immigrants who were Deported to the Island of Mauritius
Two passports (Reisepass) issued in Vienna, in 1938, to the Jews Leon Külla and Emilie Külla, two illegal immigrants who arrived in Palestine on board of the SS Atlantic and were deported to the island of Mauritius.
On the first pages of the passports are several inked stamps of Viennese authorities and foreign embassies in the city (authorization from the Vienna Police to leave the Reich, transit visa to Czechoslovakia via Bratislava and entrance visa to Paraguay). The last used page of both passports is stamped with an entrance stamp to Palestine via the Haifa Port, dated 27.8.1945. Five years separate this stamp from the other ones, during which the passport had not been stamped even once. The fate of the couple during this time is implied only by a handwritten comment next to the entrance stamp to Palestine: "Auth.: From Mauritius" (English).
"The Exiles of Mauritius" were the passengers of the illegal immigrant ship SS Atlantic, captured by the British and deported to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The illegal immigrants left Bratislava in September 1940, sailed to Tulcea on a river ship and there boarded the SS Atlantic. On their way, they stopped in Istanbul and Crete, and when the crew refused to sail on, the passengers took over the ship by force. After running out of coal, they burned the wooden furniture and when it too ran out, the ship was forced to stop and was discovered by the British Navy. The illegal immigrants were deported to Mauritius, where they remained for five years, and only after the end of the war, in August 1945, did they reach Palestine.
Naturally, the illegal immigrants' passports were not stamped during this clandestine voyage; lacking any stamps, the only documentation of their journey is the handwritten note added to the entrance stamp to Palestine.
These passports, issued after the annexation of Austria to Germany, include alongside their owners' pictures and personal details also identifying marks for Jews – the letter "J" (in red ink) appears on the first page and the names "Israel" and "Sarah" were added to the owners' birth names.
16.5 cm. Good-fair condition. Creases, stains and minor blemishes. Tears to spines, reinforced with tape. Detached cover to one passport, with three strips of paper glued to spine.