Passport

This polish passport was issued to Malka Fiszer by the Polish Consul General in London on 15th January 1926. It includes a visa for the UK and stamps referring to Malka's travel to Belgium.

Malka and her husband Juda moved to London from Warsaw, Poland, in the early years of the 20th century. Juda was a skilled umbrella-maker and, in 1907, established an umbrella business in the heart of the Jewish East End at 45 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Although the family anglicised their name to Fisher soon after their arrival, Malka and Juda both kept their Polish nationality. During the First World War, the Fishers moved to the more desirable area of Hackney and set up home at 123 Victoria Park Road. Their son Morris Fisher continued the family business but, by the 1930s, the Hanbury Street shop had closed. The premises were taken over by a tailor. Morris became a market trader operating a stall in the Whitechapel Road selling, rather than manufacturing, umbrellas, walking sticks and handbags.