Winter Auction 2025 Preview (#1480577)

A WWII-era German administrative document, dated February–March 1941, issued under the authority of the Reichsführer-SS and the Chief of the German Police, concerning passport and border-traffic regulations between the Third Reich, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the incorporated Eastern territories. Typed on official paper with multiple ink stamps, routing marks, and period annotations, the document outlines the impending implementation of new travel-control measures set to take effect in mid-March 1941 and instructs regional police and governmental offices on distribution, compliance, and procedural handling. The piece bears two clear institutional seals and the signature block “Krause,” attesting to its authenticity as a circulated administrative directive within the Nazi state’s bureaucratic framework.  

While this document does not mention the holocaust specifically, it sits squarely inside the administrative machinery that made the Holocaust and broader occupation policies possible. By regulating passport procedures and cross-border movement between the Reich, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the incorporated Polish territories, it reflects the tightening control that enabled the segregation, surveillance, and eventual deportation of targeted populations. The offices listed — Reichsführer-SS, police presidents, Reich governors in annexed regions — were the same authorities that organized ghettoization, population transfers, and the early phases of persecution. While this piece is not itself a deportation order, it illustrates how routine bureaucratic directives created the logistical framework that restricted freedom of movement, isolated Jews and other persecuted groups, and supported the enforcement structure that ultimately facilitated mass murder.