|
|
|
|
|
|
Some time ago we purchased the Östreicher (variously Oestreicher, Ostreicher and pronounced OST-ryker) cache or treasure consisting of a suitcase containing 30+ pieces of ephemera and mementoes of immigrant Hugo Oestreicher and members of his family, in a decrepit warehouse in Los Angeles, California. We bought these items from a lady who liquidated estates in and around that city for the past 50 years. She purchased the Oestreicher lot as you can see it on four separate USMBOOKS web pages, years ago in the Southern California town of Laguna Woods, as a part of the estate of a deceased woman, Gretchen “Gretl” Oestreicher Warschawski Warner. |
 |
| We were immediately attracted to the rare cache because of the distinctive old personalized German Derby Koffer brand vulcan fiber suitcase in which it was found, and especially because of the similarity of that suitcase to the many of a similar type that we had seen in the museum of the former German Concentration Camp at Auschwitz in Poland. The dark Derby Koffer suitcase measures 16 x 26 inches and is 7 inches deep, and has the name Hugo Oestreicher painted on it in bold white letters above the words New York via San Francisco in precisely the manner of the many suitcases in the museum at Auschwitz. There is not the slightest doubt about the provenance of the suitcase or the material in it. |
| As we examined the content of the suitcase, we quickly realized who Hugo Oestreicher was and began to understand the long and complex route he, his wife Berta, their daughter Gretl and son-in-law Arnold Warschawski and his suitcase had taken to get from Nazi Germany to Shanghai, China and from Shanghai to San Francisco, and eventually to Southern California. We were struck by the incredible historical nature of the museum quality ephemeral material inside. The whole story would make a wonderful movie! |
 |
 |
 |
Among the original documents and ephemera found in the suitcase is the extremely rare original Nazi German passport of Arnold Warschawski. Warschawski was born on 31 May 1910 and married 27 year old Gretchen ‘Gretl’ Oestreicher on 31 May 1938 in Berlin, thus becoming the son-in-law of Hugo Oestreicher. According to his passport he was of medium height, had blue eyes, dark brown hair, an oval face and no special features or characteristics. As his occupation he lists Damen Modelschneider or ladies tailor, just like on his American entry papers in May 1947 when he arrived in the USA.
This Deutsches Reich Reisepass is number II/3960/38*, issued by the Polizeipräsident Berlin Abteilung II (Head of Berlin Police Department 2) on 24 October 1938. On the day it was issued the customary red J was added and dated on page 1. The ID photo of 28 year old Arnold Warschawski is correctly stamped in the upper right and lower left corners with the purple eagle and swastika rubber stamp of the Polizeipräsident Berlin Abteilung II. Under the ID photo is the signature of Warschawski.
This Deutsches Reich Reisepass is number II/3960/38*, issued by the Polizeipräsident Berlin Abteilung II (Head of Berlin Police Department 2) on 24 October 1938. On the day it was issued the customary red J was added and dated on page 1. The ID photo of 28 year old Arnold Warschawski is correctly stamped in the upper right and lower left corners with the purple eagle and swastika rubber stamp of the Polizeipräsident Berlin Abteilung II. Under the ID photo is the signature of Warschawski.
On 28 October 1938 (4 days after acquiring his passport) Arnold Warschawski went to the Consulate of Paraguay in Berlin and paid for a visa to enter the country of Paraguay. Consul Otto Nimé personally signed the visa. Three colorful stamps were added to page 7 of the passport, overstamped by the Consulado General de la Republica del Paraguay. The opposite page has permission stamps from the Deutsch-Südamerikanische Bank to exchange German Reichsmarks for foreign currency, one dated 1 December 1938 and a second one 1 February 1939.
* While we did not find the passport of Gretl Warschawski in this suitcase, we know from the ID card issued in Shanghai by the International Committee for Granting Relief to European Refugees, that her Nazi passport number was II/3961/38.
RETURN to the main page of the Oestreicher / Warschawski
Jewish refugee 'cache' for sale on USMBOOKS.com.
On 13 February 1939 the Warschawski’s boarded the Hakozaki Maru (a steamship of the Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha or Japanese N.Y.K. Line) in Naples, Italy and sailed for Shanghai, China. There are two official Italian exit stamps on page 32 in this passport, applied at the Porto di Napoli. A stop was made in the port of Colombo (Ceylon, now Sri Lanka) on 28 February 1939 and the relevant stamp is on page 9.
On this USMBOOKS web page, we provide additional information and pictures of the original Third Reich German Reisepass or passport Arnold Warschawski used to leave his country of birth in February 1939. This original J-stamped Nazi passport issued in Berlin on 24 October 1938 is part of the Oestreicher / Warschawski Jewish refugee 'cache' offered for sale.
|
There are additional Chinese stamped entries and an emboss on page 11 of this historic 85 year old German Reisepass.
We do not know when Hugo and Berta Oestreicher and Arnold and Gretl Warschawski decided to abandon their plans to travel to Paraguay, but stamps in this passport show that Arnold Warschawski (and probably his wife and her parents) left Nazi Germany on 2 February 1939, crossing into Italy via the Border Police Post at the Brenner Pass. The German Grenzpolizei stamped his passport to show his departure from Germany on page 6, and there is an Italian border entry stamp, also applied at the Brenner Pass and also dated 2 February 1939 on page 32.
When Arnold Warschawski departed from Germany in February 1939 he left behind his parents, Albert Warschawski and Martha Rosentreter Warschawski, both born in the Posen area (now in Poland) in 1881 and 1888 respectively. Albert and Martha Warschawski were deported from Berlin-Schöneberg and died in Auschwitz concentration camp in February 1943.
This is an extremely rare Nazi German passport for a well-documented Jewish refugee. The passport is complete and 100% original as you see it here, and in very good used condition. Over the years the cover became detached in two pieces (front and back covers) and was scotch taped along the spine but not reattached to the 32 pages which are still held together with their original staples.
This is an extremely rare Nazi German passport for a well-documented Jewish refugee. The passport is complete and 100% original as you see it here, and in very good used condition. Over the years the cover became detached in two pieces (front and back covers) and was scotch taped along the spine but not reattached to the 32 pages which are still held together with their original staples.
OESTREICHER / WARSCHAWSKI TREASURE TROVE
|
One of the rarest aspects of this passport is the stamp on page 8 applied at the German Consulate in Shanghai on 27 April 1939. It makes it official that Arnold Warschawski became Arnold Israel Warschawski, as a result of the German “Executive Order on the Law of the Alteration of Family and Personal Names” that made it obligatory for all German Jews with “non-Jewish” first names to add “Israel” or “Sara” as their appropriate middle name. Note that the name Israel was also added to the first page of the 32-page Nazi passport at that time with a rubber stamp.
