Ordinance on the Passports of Jews (1938)

5 October 1938: passports declared invalid

On 5 October 1938 the Reich Ministry of the Interior decreed that German passports belonging to Jews residing within the Reich were invalid. Werner Best signed the ordinance in Berlin on the ministry's behalf, in agreement with the Reich Ministry of Justice.

Holders had to submit their passports to the local passport authority within two weeks of the ordinance taking effect — or within two weeks of returning, for those then abroad. Noncompliance carried a fine of up to 150 Reichsmarks, with imprisonment also possible.

A passport valid for foreign travel could be revalidated only by adding a mark identifying the holder as Jewish.

The mark, and where it came from

The prescribed identifier became a conspicuous red letter "J", stamped on the page bearing the holder's name.

The measure followed German–Swiss negotiations. Switzerland wanted to identify and restrict Jewish entrants without imposing visas on every German traveller, and the September 1938 agreement called for a distinguishing mark on passports held by Jews of the Reich.

The German regime implemented that agreement through the October ordinance.

Not one of the Nuremberg Laws

This was a separate passport ordinance issued more than three years after the September 1935 Nuremberg Laws, under the Nazi racial classification system. It was also distinct from the domestic identity-card requirements and from the compulsory additional names "Israel" and "Sara".

The stamp was not a neutral aid to escape: it made Jewish refugees immediately recognisable to foreign border officials and enabled officials to reject them.