Bidspirit auction | German Third Reich ”J”-Stamped Reisepass

German Third Reich ”J”-Stamped Reisepass (Jewish Passport) Issued to Rosa Engel, Vienna, 1938 - A Deutsches Reich Reisepass (No. 44327) issued in Vienna on 15 November 1938 to Rosa Engel, a Vienna resident born 5 December 1892 in Kolin, listed with the occupation ”Haushalt” (housewife/homemaker). The cover bears the large red ”J” (for ”Jude”) stamp mandated under the October 1938 Nazi decree requiring Jewish passport holders to be so marked, alongside the printed Reich eagle and swastika, a 3 Reichsmark fee stamp, and a circular paper stamp seal (Stempelmarke). The interior page carries the holder's photograph secured with an eyelet, her handwritten signature, a personal description (build, face shape, eye and hair color), and the issuing stamp/signature of ”Der Polizeipräsident in Wien, Abteilung II” dated Wien, 15 Nov. 1938. The booklet retains its original tan/olive paper-covered card wrapper with cloth spine, and the document contains 32 pages as printed on the cover.Following the Anschluss of March 1938, Austrian Jews came under the full weight of Nazi racial legislation, including an October 1938 agreement between Germany and Switzerland requiring German passports belonging to Jews to be marked with a red ”J” (Jude), enabling Swiss and other border authorities to identify and refuse entry to Jewish refugees. Vienna's Jewish community, numbering some 180,000 before the Anschluss, was subjected to intensive persecution, forced emigration, and property confiscation through 1938–1939, with this document dated just days after the November Pogrom (Kristallnacht) of 9–10 November 1938. Such passports were essential, and often life-determining, documents for those attempting to flee Nazi-controlled territory, as many countries' willingness to grant entry visas depended on the bearer's documented status. The issuing office, the Vienna police presidium, administered passport and residency matters for the city's population under the new Nazi administration following annexation.