![](\"http:\/\/www.isthatlegal.org\/images\/leo-kennkarte-cover.jpg\")
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Some people don\u2019t understand why we oppose a national ID card. \u201cIt\u2019s just a piece of paper,\u201d they say. \u201cWhat does it matter?\u201d<\/p>\n
Historian and law professor Eric Muller of the University of North Carolina has been trying to find out exactly what happened<\/a> to his great-uncle Leopold Muller, who was deported from his home in Germany in 1942 and never heard from again by those of his family who survived. Most likely, he was eventually murdered at the death camp called Belzec.<\/p>\n
Recently, in the course of his research, Eric found his Uncle Leopold\u2019s German national ID card<\/a>. He also found his Uncle Leopold\u2019s medals for his service in the German army in World War I, during which he lost the use of one arm. But his Kemmkarte identified him boldly on the cover as Jew, not a decorated war veteran. Perhaps that\u2019s why he arrived at the \u201cevacuation\u201d center without his ID card:<\/p>\n
The Jew Leopold Israel M\u00fcller \u2026 will be evacuated to the East on April 25, 1942. He alleges that on April 24, 1942, he lost the kennkarte that he formerly had in his possession\u2026. M\u00fcller is therefore without identification papers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Was the ID card \u201cjust a piece of paper\u201d to the Nazis? Was it sufficient that they had the person they wanted in their custody, and would soon send him to his death? No. They immedietely sent the police to search his empty house, find his kennkarte, and dutifully forward it after him (although by the time it arrived, he had been sent on, presumably to his death). The card itself mattered. To \u201close\u201d the card was, perhaps, to escape the fatal consequences of the definition it imposed.<\/p>\n