The Swiss Alien Police, wishing to stanch the influx of refugees, asked the Germans to introduce a symbol of some kind so that they could identify Jews at the border checkpoints. After talks in Berlin with the participation of Heinrich Rothmund, chief of the Alien Police, the Nazis passed a regulation that nullified all Jews' passports. Jews were given two weeks to deposit their voided passports with the police and were allowed to reclaim them only after they were imprinted with the letter "J."
