A Third Reich Jewish Woman’s Passport with a “Jude” Yellow Star and a Doctor’s Certificate

A Third Reich Passport (“Reisepass”) that was issued in September of 1938 to an exceptionally fortunate woman: Miss Paula Winkler of Austria, who was then 35 years old, having been born in Vienna in 1903. Miss Winkler was Jewish, as reflected by the large red letter “J” on the title page of the passport, and the passport was provided to her only six months after Austria had become a part of the Third Reich. The passport is accompanied by a large Physician’s Certificate (“Amtsarztliches Zeugnis”) on the stationary of the Police President of Vienna which attests to the fact that Miss Winkler was free from a variety of specified diseases (such as Malaria and Tuberculosis) that would have limited or eliminated her ability to travel. The passport reflects Miss Winkler’s escape from Nazism only months before the Second World War broke out.  The passport shows that, in Vienna in December of 1938, Miss Winkler received a visa to travel to the United Kingdom “for domestic employment”. She arrived in England less than a week later. Eleven months later, and two months after World War II had begun, her passport was stamped with a visa by the American Consulate in London, thereby allowing Miss Winkler to escape from Europe entirely to the safety of the United States. Together with the passport and the physician’s certificate in this group is one of the most infamous symbols of the Third Reich: the yellow cloth Star of David imprinted with the world “Jude”, which all Jews within the Third Reich were required to wear after 1941. This star has written on the back “Sent to me by Abigail in Bern, Switzerland”. The “Abigail” referred to must certainly have been a friend of Miss Winkler’s who had been able to escape from the Third Reich to Switzerland after the institution of the requirement that the star be worn in the Third Reich. All of the items in the group are in excellent condition.