Kennkarte

[1][2][3] The regulation authorized the Reich Minister of the Interior to introduce the requirement to have identity cards for certain groups of citizens.

introduced an obligation to have identity cards for:[2] For the latter, the third announcement contained a series of additional regulations: On August 17, 1938, the German government issued the Second Ordinance implementing the Law on the Change of Surnames and First Names (Namensänderungsverordnung, RGBl.

[4] These measures were recorded by the municipal registration authorities (Meldebehörden) or police headquarters (Polizeipräsidien) in the contemporary residents' registers.

The Kennkarte identity cards issued specifically to Jewish citizens displayed a prominent black 'J' on the front cover instead of the national emblem (Reichsadler),[6][7] and a reddish-brown, five-centimeter-high 'J' was pre-printed on the interior.

At the onset of the Second World War, a regulation issued on September 10, 1939, in the Reichsgesetzblatt mandated compulsory identification in the territory of Germany (Reichsgebiet) for all German citizens over the age of 15.

[6][7] The compulsory forenames of "Israel" and "Sara" included in the identity cards issued to Jewish citizens were also struck out with red ink.

Where duplicates of the Kennkarte identity cards deposited with the local authorities have survived to this day, they are often the only way to find portrait photos of victims of the Holocaust.

In the first weeks of the German occupation of Poland, pre-war documents issued by the Second Polish Republic were used for identification.

It had two parallel folds, and text on both sides, making it a six-page document, with each page measuring 10 by 14 cm (5.5 x 4 inches).

Poles had gray ones; Jews and Romas, yellow; Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, and Goralenvolk, blue.

Polish citizens of appropriate ethnicity were obliged to make a formal declaration that they belonged to the Aryan race.

Since Polish-speaking civil servants were involved in the process, the cards were frequently forged, which allowed for members of the Home Army, and Polish Jews, to obtain a new identity.