Another interesting Reader’s Email
A Romanian gentleman, who occasionally visits thrift stores, wrote an email to me, which indeed surprised me – and I get plenty of reader emails. He told me that especially Germany is sending its “garbage” from household cleanings to Romania for disposal. According to him, someone can find everything in there. From antique books and documents to even passports.

German law actually forbids to “reuse” personal documents. They can’t be taken from “apartment cleaners” and must be destroyed. But if there is no judge, then there is no judgement. From these large garbage collection warehouses, items are sold in bulk to thrift stores, and guess what did he found there – in Romania? German passports! But not any passports, but the travel documents and diaries of Hans Martin Schleyer and his wife Waltrude. Another interesting Reader’s Email

Schleyer was kidnapped on 5 September 1977 by the far-left Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, RAF) and subsequently murdered; his driver and police escort of three policemen were also killed when his car was ambushed.

How the heck ended his German passport from 1968, valid until 1978, plus one of his wife and a Schleyer diary spanning the family history from 1877 to 1944 in a thrift store in Romania? Another interesting Reader’s Email

I expressed my interest in the two passports and waiting for the owners’ final decision.

Passport-collector.com, founded in 2010 by passport historian Tom Topol, is a leading resource on passport history. The site features over 1,000 researched articles on the origins, evolution, and cultural significance of passports. It serves collectors, historians, and anyone interested in how travel documents reflect national identity and global events. Passport history, passport collector, collecting passports, passport fees, vintage passport collector, collectible documents, passport collection, diplomatic passport, passport office, celebrity passports, travel document, vintage passports for sale, old passports for sale, Reisepass, passport fees, most expensive passport in the world, passport colors, passport prices around the world, passport cost by country, cost of passports around the world, passport fees by country, Third Reich passport