Austrian passport 1938...

[huddyhuddy]

Hi,

Hope someone can tell more about this passport. It is interesting due to the date of issue and the very short period of time it was used.

Can someone who knows German see what the top-right stamp (also see large close up) on the first page is? Republic Administration? was this implying the passport holder was on official trip? being connected to a bank is this important?

Thanks,

Neil.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This is an Austrian passport for the so named woman Anna Schredl, the wife of an official of a Vienna bank who went briefly to the CSR (Moravia) at the time of the Anschluss. Breclav is the rail link on the way to Brno and thence to Praha. I imagine she was Jewish and properly got out as the Austrian Nazis began the spontaneous ethnic cleansing of Vienna's Jewish community. But she came back after a couple of days. I am sure the Jewish community center in Vienna would have information on her later fate.

A nice document and testimony to the first wave of Nazi terror. Of course, what happened to her later in 1939 when the Germans took the rest of Bohemia Moravia? Do you have other documents?

thanks.

Bundesvewaltung refers to the national federal administration of the Austrian state until the Nazi take over, the so called Schuschnigg state. Austria was an Austro-Fascist-Clerical regime from 1933 until 1938. It was a satellite of Mussolini's Italy, in fact.

She would have later had a German passport, of course.

[huddyhuddy]

Hi,

Thank you for the detailed reply. I do not know how we can find out if she was Jewish, there is no indication on the passport, aslo, if she was trying to escape in the last minute, to have the passport stamped valied ONLY for CSR would be strange, that's why it has a feeling that she left for a specific trip, probably official? that's why the small stamp on the first page 'Bundesvewaltung' (what is the next part of that stamp)?

Neil.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Hi,

Thank you for the detailed reply. I do not know how we can find out if she was Jewish, there is no indication on the passport, aslo, if she was trying to escape in the last minute, to have the passport stamped valied ONLY for CSR would be strange, that's why it has a feeling that she left for a specific trip, probably official? that's why the small stamp on the first page 'Bundesvewaltung' (what is the next part of that stamp)?

Neil.

I do not know as to the purpose of her trip. I also do not know how Austrian pass ports were routinely stamped in the Staendestaat. I wager she was Jewish, though. I do not know the deeper meaning of Bundesverwaltung other than the self evident federal administration. Official travel requires official documents and this does not strike me as such.

As I say, you can ask in Vienna about her. I am sure someone would know. And, if she was a Jew, she either emigrated to the US and or Palestine, or she only stayed in Europe and likely fell under the wheels of the Nazi machine of extermination.

She also lived in the XVIII district, which is a good part of town.

[huddyhuddy]

Thanks again, much appreciated.

Here is an interesting passport from Wienna, holder did not get out, passed away in Ghetto Lodz, see attached scans.

[huddyhuddy]

Would you have an idea about the stamping dating from 17 March on the inner-side of the cover?

Thanks.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Would you have an idea about the stamping dating from 17 March on the inner-side of the cover?

Thanks.

It says Passgrundlagen, or basis of passport with fees paid etc.
This period was that of the Anschluss itself.

[huddyhuddy]

I thought that passports would be changed to Deutsches Reich issued passports after the Anschlus...? why such a late date?

Neil.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I thought that passports would be changed to Deutsches Reich issued passports after the Anschlus...? why such a late date?

Neil.

I do not know. The Austrian passport is from the final moments of the Schschnigg/Dollfuss regime. I have no idea how quickly new passports were issued. Travel was not generalized as it is today. It was a matter for relatively few in society with the means at hand, in the case of your Bankiers here.

The second Pass from 1945 is also interesting that a Jew was even still alive in 1945 somehow.

[huddyhuddy]

One more thing to ask: can one make out the full text of that rubber-stamp? the one with the Bundes-verwaltungs? and the bottom stamp? can these in anyway indicate the reasons for the passport be issued? non-private trip?

Neil.