Passport

Held by

Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Dates

July 31, 1939 (indexed as 1939)

Level

item

Extent

Passport : Paper : Printed, Handwritten : Ink : Beige, Black, Brown, Red ; Ht: 6,5 in. x W: 4,25 in.

Scope & content

32 pages, bound with staples. Soft brown cover with Reichsadler in centre. First page has J stamped in red ink to designate the subject as Jewish. Subject's name has been modified to include the middle name Israel as another identifying measure. Second page has b&w photograph of subject at top left corner, affixed with a metal grommet. Signature beneath photo also has the second name Israel added. Third page contains physical description of subject and lists his occupation as merchant. Passport numbered 86539, issued July 31, 1939 Pages 6-7 contain multiple stamps needed to leave Germany and enter England. Narrative: The middle name Israel is added to passport holder Edgar Strauss' name as per the Second Ordinance on the Implementation of the Law on the Amendment of Surnames and Family Names of 17 August 1938. This law aimed to identify German Jews by their first names. Unless they already had a name “viewed by the German people as a typical Jewish name", they had to take the name Israel or Sara starting in January 1939. The Law on the Amendment of Surnames and Family Names and its amendments were prepared by the Ministry of the Interior and written by Hans Globke. The implementation of this regulation is seen as "the first attempt at a general, external marking of the Jews" (See reference: Uwe Dietrich Adam: Judenpolitik im Dritten Reich. Unv. Nachdr. Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-7700-4063-5, S. 120.) Edgar Strauss, was born in 1909 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany. He was forced to stop his studies, and then lost his job due to Nazi anti-Jewish laws. During the Kristallnacht pogroms in 1938, he was arrested and interned in Dachau. Upon release, he fled to Luxembourg but returned to Germany for fear of reprisals against his father. In August 1939, Edgar obtained this passport and the necessary visas to leave the country. He travelled to England, arriving in Harwich, where he worked in a machine shop. After the Battle of Dunkirk in June 1940, the UK interned all Germans as enemy aliens. Edgar was sent first to the Isle of Man, and then to internment camps in Canada. He spent time in Camp T in Trois-Rivières, Quebec; Camp B, in New Brunswick, and Camp I, Île aux Noix, Quebec. He was released in 1942, and settled in Montreal.

Location

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Genre / form

textual record

In the picture

DocumentEyeglassesHandwrittenManPolicePortraitPrintedSignatureStampTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

PERSONENBESCHREIBUNGEhefrauLichtbildBeruf KaufmannGeburtsort Ludwigshafen a. Rh.Geburtstag 11. Juni 1909Wohnort Ludwigshafen a. Rh.Gestalt 1.70 mGesicht ovalFarbe der Augen braunFarbe des Haares braunKINDERNameAlterGeschlechtUnterschrift des PaßinhabersDr. Edgar Israel Straussund seiner EhefrauEs wird hiermit bescheinigt, daß der Inhaber die durch das obenstehende Lichtbild dargestellte Person ist und die darunter befindliche Unterschrift eigenhändig vollzogen hat.Ludwigshafen a. Rh., den 31 Juli 1939Polizeipräsidium:Besond. KennzeichenBrilleRead automatically; may contain mistakes.

Language

German

Harvested

2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗2011X-322-02b.jpg
• imageOpen original at source ↗2011X-322-02.jpg