Exit Permits, Conscription and Illegal Emigration

Chapter 2 · Leaving Poland · Exit permits

In all three partitions a young man who had not yet served in the army could not legally emigrate without a release, and releases were rarely granted. Hundreds of thousands left anyway. Their families kept quiet about it for a generation, but the departures still left records.

Postcard of the Russian border crossing at Brody, early 1900s — The Russian border at Brody, then in Austrian Galicia, on a postcard published before 1906. Many young men of military age slipped across borders like this one without an exit permit.

How illegal emigration worked

Guides led groups across the Russian and Prussian border at night, often for a fee arranged by a steamship agent who sold the whole journey as a package: the crossing, the train to the port and the ticket. Others used borrowed or forged papers, or a short-term border pass meant for seasonal farm work in Germany.

Colored postcard of the Russian-German border at Herby with striped posts, guards and travelers — The Russian-German border crossing at Herby, with striped frontier posts, guards and travelers, about 1910-1918. Young men who left the Russian partition without a passport had to get past posts like these.

The records it left behind

Conscription lists marking a man as absent or “gone abroad”
Fines imposed on the families of deserters, recorded by district authorities
Police and court files on agents and border guides
Registers of the German border control stations

1895 drawing of emigrants in the waiting room of the Ruhleben emigrant station — The waiting room of the emigrant station at Ruhleben near Berlin, drawn by Werner Zehme for Die Gartenlaube in 1895. Emigrants from Russia and Austria were checked here before going on to Hamburg or Bremen.

The German border control stations

From 1894 Prussia routed emigrants from Russia and Austria through control stations on its eastern border and near Berlin, where they were examined, disinfected and registered before being allowed on to Hamburg or Bremen. Passengers without a valid ticket or enough money were turned back. A name struck from a ship manifest with the note “not on board” is sometimes explained by a refusal at one of these stations.

If your family story says an ancestor “escaped the Russian army”, take it seriously. It tells a researcher which partition to search and which records to expect.

Sources and research tools

How we can help

Conscription lists and district records are searched within Immigration & Passenger Records and larger projects when the date or manner of departure matters.

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