Visa Issued By Warsaw Ghetto Commander

Visa Warsaw Ghetto Commander
At the first view this Lithuanian passport, or to be more exact “Safe Conduct”, shows a 27 yo woman but the back of the document reveals a German transit visa issued in May 1940 by the department of the “Chief of the District Warschau”, here “Passstelle” (passport office). The person in charge was Ludwig Fischer, who was not only in charge of the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw but also a convicted war criminal, hanged 1947 in Poland. I’ve never seen such a visa before and even it’s not signed by Fischer himself this visa is most rare to spot.

Appointment as Governor of the Warsaw District

After the 1939 Invasion of Poland, Fischer was appointed Governor of the Warsaw District in the occupied General Government (the area of Poland that was not formally annexed). He held this position until the withdrawal of the German forces from Warsaw in January 1945.

War Crimes

Fischer was directly responsible for a number of war crimes, as well as crimes against humanity. He was responsible for the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto, issued many anti-Semitic laws, as well as participating in the bloody Ghetto de-establishment and deportation. He was also responsible for terror in the occupied city, including mass executions, slave labor programs and deportation of Polish Jews to the various Nazi Concentration Camps.

Sentenced to Death

He was sentenced to death by the Special Courts of the Polish resistance movement for crimes against Polish citizens. His name was first on the list of “Operation Heads”—the serial assassinations of Nazi personnel by the Polish Resistance. Before the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, his car was shot at in Operation Hunting, but Fischer survived.

Following the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising, Fischer assumed a significant role in the Nazi Germany’s orchestrated scheme to devastate Warsaw. Additionally, he bore responsibility for the deplorable conditions within the temporary transit camp in Pruszków, designed to confine individuals expelled from the capital. Visa Warsaw Ghetto Commander

At the age of 41, Fischer was apprehended by the Allied forces following the war and subsequently transferred to Polish authorities. The Supreme National Tribunal conducted his trial, ultimately condemning him to death. During the proceedings in 1947, Jankiel Wiernik, a survivor of Treblinka and the Warsaw uprising, provided testimony against him.

Execution

He was executed by hanging in Warsaw’s Mokotów Prison. A 2013 National Geographic Channel documentary “Bloody Tales” claims that a film thought to be of the execution of the Nazi war criminal Amon Goeth is in fact that of Fischer’s execution.

Read more on Prosecution of Nazi Crimes in Poland in 1939–2004 and on the Warsaw Ghetto.

Visa Warsaw Ghetto Commander

 

Tom Topol | Passport History Expert & Author.
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