Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia J-Passport 1942

A very unusual and rare passport with the Red mark J (Jew) in the name of Luci Romano, nee Levy, issued at the German consulate in Ruse in Bulgaria. The passport bears a stamp PROTECTORATE BOHEMIA-MORAVIA on page one. Luci also had her two children, Albert and Dora, in her passport. This travel document is rare because it was issued at an unusual German consulate in occupied territory and bears the red J mark on the cover and first page. The J stamp is rather small and should be according to a Nazi directive three centimeters high, the place of the mark was also defined but the form itself was never specified; hence we can find many variations of the stamp.

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German: Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren; Czech: Protektorát Čechy a Morava) was a protectorate of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German occupation of the Czech lands on 15 March 1939. Earlier, following the Munich Agreement of September 1938, Nazi Germany had incorporated the Czech Sudetenland territory as a Reichsgau (October 1938). Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia J-Passport 1942

The protectorate’s population was the majority ethnic Czech, while the Sudetenland was majority ethnic German. Following the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic on 14 March 1939, and the German occupation of the Czech rump state the next day, Adolf Hitler established the protectorate on 16 March 1939 by a proclamation from Prague Castle.

The German government justified its intervention by claiming that Czechoslovakia was descending into chaos as the country was breaking apart on ethnic lines and that the German military was seeking to restore order in the region. Czechoslovakia at the time under President Emil Hácha had pursued a pro-German foreign policy; however, upon meeting with the German Führer Adolf Hitler (15 March 1939), Hácha submitted to Germany’s demands and issued a declaration stating that in light of events he accepted that Germany would decide the fate of the Czech people; Hitler accepted Hácha’s declaration and declared that Germany would provide the Czech people with an autonomous protectorate governed by ethnic Czechs. Hácha was appointed president of the protectorate the same day. Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia J-Passport 1942

The Protectorate was a nominally autonomous Nazi-administered territory which the German government considered part of the Greater German Reich. The state’s existence came to an end with the surrender of Germany to the Allies in 1945.

Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia J-Passport 1942

NS German Passport – Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – Kaschau