News
Descendants of refugees from the Nazis face long delays in applying for German citizenship
'We have people in their 80s that want citizenship now. They don’t have years to wait,' lawyer says after German relaxes law
September 4, 2019 16:25
'We have people in their 80s that want citizenship now. They don’t have years to wait,' lawyer says after German relaxes law
September 4, 2019 16:25British descendants of refugees from the Nazis face long delays in having their applications for German citizenship processed, despite Germany relaxing the rules after many were excluded , a lawyer representing them has said.
Felix Couchman, a solicitor in London, who co-founded the Article 116 Exclusions Group, cautiously welcomed the announcement last week by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to revise the Nationality Law to create new categories of eligibility, such as for descendants of women who were forced to emigrate after marrying non-German men.
But he told the JC: “We need confirmation about how this new decree is going to work and if there is going to be a speedy way of dealing with it. It is currently taking the Embassy years to get through application and we have people in their 80s that want citizenship now. They don’t have years to wait.”
He added: “The development means there will be members of the group who will be qualify for German citizenship under the new decree. But we want a change in legislation and have to keep campaigning for that. The other problem is that people living in Germany already won’t be able to apply.
The move comes partially in response to the work of the Article 116 Exclusions Group, a UK-based campaign group that lobbies the German government for the liberalisation of citizenship laws for the descendants of those persecuted by the Nazis.
Article 116 refers to the part of German nationality law that dictates the restoration of German citizenship. Loopholes in the law have, in the past, deprived many German Jews of reclaiming their citizenship.
The move also raises hopes for those seeking to obtain European Union passports in the wake of Brexit.
Many previous applicants who wanted to maintain ties to continental Europe after the 2016 referendum had their requests rejected. This decree would now allow them to reapply and get approval.
One Briton who is now expected to be eligible is Eleanor Thom, whose Jewish German grandmother came to Britain in 1938 and married a British man in 1942. Both Ms Thom and her mother were rejected when they applied for German citizenship.
Speaking to the JC in December, Ms Thom said: “My grandmother came here on a domestic service visa. She was a working class Jewish Berliner and she was a single mother in Germany.
“She was exiled. The alternative was imprisonment and she was unable to bring her daughter, so she lived with this loss all her life.”
Speaking to Deutsche Welle last week, Mr Seehofer said: “Germany has to live up to its historic responsibility towards those who, as descendants of Jews persecuted by the Nazi regime, have suffered from disadvantages pertaining to Nationality Law.
“This is especially true for people whose parents or grandparents had to flee the country. With the decrees ... we will create an efficient arrangement allowing those affected to apply immediately for German citizenship."
The proclamation comes less than a year after Austria began a similar citizenship measure for the children and grandchildren of Holocaust victims.
In November 2018, former-Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in an exclusive interview with the JC: “It is apparent that many still have strong ties to Austria and perhaps also that they have found peace with the country where their parents or grandparents were born, lived, but also had terrible experiences and had to leave.”
But a bill on the law was subsequently voted down by Austrian MPs earlier this year.
