Fritz Pfeffer applies for entry visa for Chile

On 13 January 1939, Pfeffer wrote to the aid organisation Comité de Proteccion a los Inmigrantes Israelitas in Santiago de Chile that he wanted to go to Chile with Charlotte Kaletta. He stated that he had been daily engaged in horse care since 1919, and wanted to make a living from it in Chile. His assets amounted to four thousand guilders.^[1]

Within days after sending this application, Pfeffer requested the Minister of Justice to be allowed to await the further process in the Netherlands. In doing so, he informed him that the application procedure was ongoing, he had ample funds for living expenses and he would not pursue any profession or business in the Netherlands.^[2]

Another two days later, on 16 January 1939, Pfeffer's passport expired. The German consulate in Amsterdam refused to renew it.^[3] As early as November 1938, top Justice Department officials noted that the consulate rarely honoured such requests from Jewish Germans anymore.^[4]

On 17 January 1939, the Chilean consulate in Rotterdam confirmed that Pfeffer had requested the Chilean government to be allowed to leave for that country.^[5] The Amsterdam Foreign Office reported to the Attorney General on 14 February that Pfeffer indeed wanted to go to Chile, but was also making attempts to leave for Australia or Aruba.^[3] Almost five months later, on 7 June, the Attorney General wrote to the minister seeing no reason to deviate from the circular of 7 May 1938 and that Pfeffer should not be allowed longer stays.^[6] That circular stipulated that the borders were closed to refugees, and only very exceptional cases could be admitted.

The municipality of Amsterdam issued Pfeffer with a certificate of good conduct on 3 August 1939 in connection with his intended departure to an unspecified foreign country.^[7] A few days before Christmas, Pfeffer's old friend Günther Klein declared his willingness to act as guarantor for him for the period he still had to stay in the Netherlands pending his application. There are no documents that can clarify the further course of these emigration attempts. What is clear is that Pfeffer and his fiancée failed to leave the Netherlands. In 1942, his last option was to go into hiding in the Secret Annex.