Hi all,
Here is another set of 2 documents that I thought may be of interest to share.
Two Polish passports issued roughly the same time, shortly before the Polish embassy was shut down and the staff, with the Jewish refugees in Japan deported to Shanghai, shortly before Pearl Harbor.
The embassy secretary who issued the two passports extended them in Shanghai, after arriving from Tokyo. One of the passport holders was a Sugihara visa recipient, the other arrived earlier to Tokyo, also in 1940. One manages to end up in the international exchange list, where allies and axis exchanged their interned civilians, in Mozambique, in 1942. The holder then boarded the MS Gripsholm to England. The other holder was not lucky: he was interned at the Jewish ghetto in Shanghai from 1943-145, passport being extended by the Polish Association in China, 3 times (I have not found to date information on this organization which acted as some sort of Polish representation in China). He managed to be liberated in 1945 and left Shanghai in 1946.
Interesting to add that one passport was printed in Lodon of 1940, the printing location for Polish passports after September of 1939. Another located location for passports printed for the Polish goverment in exile was Paris, but this seased after the fall of France in 1940. The british issued another passport in 1942.
These type of documents are of utmost importance and interest to WW2 collectors, I believe.
Neil
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