Austria is to offer citizenship to the descendants of Jews who fled the country under the Nazis.
In a move aimed at delivering a measure of historic justice for their ancestors’ expulsions, the descendants of Jewish refugees can apply for citizenship from Tuesday.
Around 120,000 Jews fled Austria to escape Nazi persecution in 1938, with as many as 20,000 refugees registering in the UK in 1945.
In 1993 Austria lifted a post-war bar on citizenship applications from those who had taken up citizenship elsewhere out of necessity. But campaigners have now successfully argued that the descendants of those who fled Austria should also have the right to apply for citizenship.
Applauding the new law, Hannah Lessing, secretary general of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, told The Observer: “This law is an important step that says Austrian society is finally ready to welcome the families that it drove away,” she said.
“However, like other gestures, it can never truly make amends for the Holocaust.”
Bini Guttmann, the Austrian president of the European Union of Jewish Students, urged people to look beyond such gestures to the country’s current political climate. “Unfortunately, the far right is on the rise again in Austria, assisted by politicians who have adopted its discriminatory agenda,” he said. “As a result, many among Austria’s minorities feel that they are not welcome here.”
More than 200, 000 people are estimated to now be eligible for citizenship – although few are likely to add to Austria’s small resident Jewish population of 10, 000.
At its height the country’s Jewish population number 200, 000.
The new law, which mirrors legislation introduced by Germany, has been backed by chancellor Sebastian Kurz, of the right-wing Austrian People’s Party.
Since he was first elected in 2017, Mr Kurz has asserted repeatedly the country’s responsibility towards Austrian victims of national socialism.
