SECRET ARMIES
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Gestapo headquarters. The agent is given this means of tempo
rary identification by the border Gestapo chief.
Also, whenever immigration authorities find a German pass
port issued to the bearer for less than five years and then ex
tended to the regulation five-year period, they may be certain
that the bearer is a new Gestapo agent who is being tested by
controlled movements in a foreign country. For his first Gestapo
mission in Holland, for instance, Voigt was given a passport
August 15, 1936, good for only fourteen days. His chief was not
sure whether or not Voigt had agreed to become an agent just to
get a passport and money to escape the country; so his passport
period was limited.
When the fourteen-day period expired, Voigt would have to
report to the Nazi Consulate for a renewal. In this particular
instance, the passport was marked "Non-renewable Except by
Special Permission of the Chief of Dresden Police." When Voigt
performed his Holland mission
successfully,
he was given the
usual five-year passport.
Any German whose
passport shows a given limited time, which
has been subsequently extended, gives proof that he has been
tested
and found
satisfactory
by the Gestapo.