Print - The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network - Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives

Physical Description: Travel document : Paper : Printed, Handwritten : Ink : White, Black, Purple ; Ht: 26,9 cm x W: 21 cm

Physical Description: Travel document : Paper : Printed, Handwritten : Ink : White, Black, Purple ; Ht: 26,9 cm x W: 21 cm

Notes: 1 page, double-sided. Travel pass, issued by the Belgian Consulate in Perpignan, France, authorizing Bernhard Otto Fischer to travel freely in the French Occupied Zone and cross the border into Belgium, accompanied by Otto Bondy. Circular stamp on back, b.r has insignia in centre. Narrative: Otto Bondy and Bernhard Otto Fischer escaped the St-Cyprien internment camp in September or October 1940. At the Belgian Consulate, Mr. Fischer was initially refused the travel pass because the consulate only issued travel documents for Belgian nationals (he was Austrian). The officer would not complete the form with the necessary stamp and signature. The escaped men left with the unstamped document, and later convinced 2 gendarmes on the street that they were Belgian and needed their travel pass validated, and were taken to the Gendarmerie where the document was stamped and signed. Mr. Fischer subsequently added Mr. Bondy's name to the document as authorized travel companion. Otto Bondy was the father of the donor, Walter Absil. He was born in Vienna, Austria on January 1, 1897, and fled to Belgium with his family in 1938. He was deported from the Malines (Melechen) transit camp in Belgium to Auschwitz in September 1943, where he was murdered. Bernhard Otto Fischer was Mr. Absil's uncle (his mother's brother). He survived the war and settled in the United Kingdom.