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Questions re: Polish passports during interwar period


komi  2 | -  
10 May 2018 /  #1
I just had a couple questions regarding details of Polish passports during the Second Polish Republic (aka interwar Poland).

Firstly, for foriegn-born people of Polish descent who went to Poland to get citizenship, was their place of birth on the passport written in Polish or a foreign language? For example, in the case of a returning Pole who was born to immigrants in New York, would their birthplace on the passport read "New York" in English or "Nowy Jork" in Polish?

Secondly, I know that under the Citizenship Act of 1920 Poles could lose their citizenship if they joined a foreign military without special Polish government consent (except during WW2 with Poles in places like the British army). Did this rule also apply to Poles who joined foreign police forces?
Ziemowit  14 | 3936  
10 May 2018 /  #2
The language of diplomacy and foreign relations in the inter-war period in Europe was definitely French. So I am sure that the foreign language used in Polish passports of that period was French.

The names of foreign towns where a person was born would have been written in their original forms rather than in the Polish version, so New York would have been much more likely than Nowy Jork.

Did this rule also apply to Poles who joined foreign police forces?

I don't think so.
delphiandomine  86 | 17823  
11 May 2018 /  #3
The names of foreign towns where a person was born would have been written in their original forms rather than in the Polish version

Are you sure? I know that today, they write it in Polish, so wouldn't it have been the same then?

I don't think so.

Almost certainly not, unless it was a gendarmerie that they joined, I think.
Ziemowit  14 | 3936  
12 May 2018 /  #4
Are you sure? I know that today, they write it in Polish

No, I am not. A possible explanation of why they do it is they put into the passport the name that the person involved gives them in the passport application. If they tell them they were born in "Londyn" or "Ratyzbona", why should the institution that issues the passport change the name into "London" or "Regensburg"? Not to mention the fact that the officer may be convinced there exist two towns on this planet: one of the name Regensburg, the other of the name Ratyzbona. Indeed, both names look like being two different or unrelated names.

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