NS Passport – Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – Kaschau

After World War I and during the gradual break-up of Austria-Hungary, the city at first became a part of the transient “Eastern Slovak Republic,” declared on 11 December 1918 in Košice and earlier in Prešov under the protection of Hungary. On 29 December 1918, the Czechoslovak Legions entered the city, making it part of the newly established Czechoslovakia. However, in June 1919, Košice has occupied again as part of the Slovak Soviet Republic, a proletarian puppet state of Hungary. The Czechoslovak troops secured the city for Czechoslovakia in July 1919, which was later upheld under the Treaty of Trianon in 1920.

Jews had lived in Košice (Kaschau) since the 16th century but were not allowed to settle permanently. There is a document identifying the local coiner in 1524 as a Jew and claiming that his predecessor was a Jew as well. Jews were allowed to enter the city during the town fair but were forced to leave it by night and mainly lived in nearby Rozunfaca. In 1840 the ban was removed, and before that, a few Jews lived in the town, among them a widow who ran a small Kosher restaurant for the Jewish merchants passing through the city.

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