[TRAVEL PASSPORTS]. A group of 15 passports, related to nineteenth-century Russian travels, the WWI German Occupation, and a rare Eastern European Yiddish passport. [Russia, Serbia, Germany, Lithuania, England, France, ca. 1846-1969].
Passports feature the occupied Baltics during the Great War, nineteenth century travelers to Russia, some notable names, and assorted matters of interest. Some were issued for one specific journey, others for longer term open travel, with examples concerning citizenship and immigrant travel. These documents vary in format, including early and large single leaf printed declarations completed and signed in manuscript, to modern day wallet-sized hardcover portfolios. Together with a poem stamped by the British Passport Control office at Budapest, titled “A Morning in the Life of a Passport Control Officer.” Some creasing and age-toning, the earliest passport with professionally repaired folds. Included is an exceedingly scarce domestic “Ober Ost” Yiddish passport issued at Wilkomierz [Ukmerge] in Lithuania 14 February 1917 for a man named Feines Kesnik, born in June 1870, living under German rule during the Great War. Text is in two languages: German (as the official language) and Yiddish, in Hebrew lettering (for the passport holder of Jewish nationality). The German eagle is prominent on the front, along with “PAS” in both Hebrew and German letters. This is an internal (domestic) passport issued by German authorities, complete with his photograph and fingerprint. The bylaws of the German government appear in Yiddish. Punishments range from five to ten years for a person found without a passport, or carrying a forged passport. There were also penalties for anyone who did not announce the loss of their passport within 24 hours. Issued by the German military during WWI occupation of Lithuania, at that time being part of the Russian Empire, this example features the ephemeral stamps of the “Verwaltungsgebiet Litauen” [Lithuania administrative region] and “Vilkmerges Karo Kommandantur” [Wilkomierz Military Command].