Nazi Jewish Passport Rejection 1942

JEWISH PASSPORT NAZI REJECTION 1942

OFFICIAL NAZI
INTERIOR MINISTRY
REJECTION OF A
JEWISH PASSPORT
EXCEPTION
APPLICATION BY
DR. ALICE STRAUSS,
DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
OF FAMOUS
COMPOSER
RICHARD STRAUSS

This remarkably rare grouping consists of a 32-page 3rd style Nazi passport that was filled out by Dr. Alice (pronounced Ah-lee-sa) Sara Strauß, a 100% Jewish (volljüdisch) woman who was married to Franz Strauß, the only son of one of Hitler’s favorite composers, Dr. Richard Strauss.

By a Führer Order of 22 April 1941, the children of Franz and Alice Strauß were exempted from the regulations that required full- and half-Jews residing in Germany to have their Nazi passport stamped with the red letter J, and required males to take the middle name Israel and females to adpot the middle name Sara. In 1940 Alice Strauss had requested a similar dispensation for herself through the Reichspropagandaministerium in Berlin. The request was denied.

On 12 November 1941 Alice Strauss acquired Nazi Reisepass or passport number 45619 H/40 in the office of the Police President in Wien. She paid 3 Reichsmarks and filled in the blanks in the passport. She was without an occupation, had been born in Prag (Prague) on 3 June 1904 and was living in Vienna. She was of medium build, had an oval face with greyish-brown eyes and reddish-blond hair. Her photograph was pasted in and the document was forwarded to the Der Reichsminister des Innern in Berlin (the Interior Ministry, where Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler had his office) with the request that the passport be endorsed BUT WITHOUT the obligatory middle name “Sara”, and without the large red J on the first page as required by the "Family and First Name Law" of 5 January 1938. Without the middle name and the J, Alice Strauss would have been able to travel in and outside of Germany without anyone knowing she was a Jew.

On 16 January 1942 the office of Der Reichsminister des Innern in Berlin responded to the Reichsstatthalter in Vienna (the highest civil authority in that area) that the Führer repeated his view “that there should be no exceptions to the Nürnberg Racial Laws and no preferential treatment”.

Early in March 1942 Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach apparently also wrote asking that Alice Strauss’ request be granted, because the requests by Mrs. Strauss and Reichsleiter von Schirach were subsequently denied in a letter dated 16 March 1942 from the Police President in Wien to Obergebietsführer Müller in the Central Office of the Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach. The Police President stated in that letter that he was not in a position to grant the request for even a temporary Kennkarte without a J for Alice Strauss.

The Police President went on to say that it had come to his attention that there was a new ruling by the Führer himself stating that there should be no special treatment of Jews, even on a case-by-case basis. He cited the example that the Reichsführer SS had a few weeks earlier, denied a similar request from Major General Eduard Israel Leitner. He ends the letter by saying he was sorry he could not help.

This lot also contains an extremely historical note (shown right) dated 31 March 1942 from Regierungsrat Dr. Horst Hoffmann to the Regierungspräsidenten Dr. Hans Dellbrügge reinforcing the fact that all Kennkarten (personal civilian identification documents) issued to Jews MUST be those bearing the large initial J on the front panel.

The Alice Strauss passport also includes an extra picture of her and the Merkblatt or Passport Instruction Sheet which ends with the admonition “Remember, you are a German!”

This six piece grouping is Third Reich material of the very rarest sort! It would be impossible to find a similar grouping anywhere at any price. Further information about the Strauss family, including information about Alice Strauss, is easily found on the internet.

Very good condition, from the collection of authors Ray & Josephine Cowdery. Comes with a signed and dated Certificate of Authenticity.

For additional Nazi era passports for Jews, click HERE.
For Kripo, Gestapo, SS and concentration camp documents, click HERE.

This item is sold. Click here to see items which are still for sale.

This USM Books website is Copyright © 2005 by USM, Inc., and the text and images on it are fully protected by international copyright law. It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found here and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.