Dear Friends
I know this group has a strong focus on historical matters and,
geographically at least, the focus is hundreds of miles east of Germany.
However, some members may be interested in the question of German
Citizenship Laws and the possibility of obtaining and/or re-acquiring
German Citizenship (and an EU Passport).
At the end of June 2021 the German Parliament passed an amendment to the
German Citizenship Law to make it fairer and easier for some Jewish victims
of Nazi persecution who had previously been excluded from restoring their
German Citizenship.
My family's experience can illustrate how these new changes will work and
why this may be relevant for some people whose families came from Bukovina
and other parts of Eastern Europe.
My maternal grandparents travelled to Stuttgart in Germany from Bukovina
(Wischnitz/Vyzhnytsia)) and Galicia (Kolomyia/Kołomyja) in 1930. They built
a new life in Stuttgart setting up a business and starting a family - my
mother who was born in 1938. However, throughout this time they were not
permitted to apply to become German citizens and they were fortunate to
escape Germany only 3 days before the outbreak of WW2.
Under the previous version of the German Citizenship law my mother did not
have a right to claim German citizenship because she was not born to German
citizens. This was one of a number of anomalies in the law. Campaigners,
including the Article 116 Exclusions Group
<
https://www.article116exclusionsgroup.org/>, have worked to address these
gaps in the law (which were also probably challengeable under EU Equalities
provisions).
Fortunately this law has now been revised and information is set out in
this press release and this article
Germany lifts restrictions for descendants of Nazi victims to get
citizenship | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond |
DW | 25.06.2021
<
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-lifts-restrictions-for-descendants-of-nazi-victimsto-get-citizenship/a-58046004>
Press Release - June 2021 — ART 116 (article116exclusionsgroup.org)
<
https://www.article116exclusionsgroup.org/pr0621>
The key elements are set out in this quote from the article:
*"The new bill that was brought into parliament in March and has now been
passed, makes it possible for a large number of descendants of Nazi victims
to obtain German citizenship. This affects descendants of those who were
stripped of their citizenship or lost it when they took on the nationality
of their new home, or who were denied citizenship arbitrarily by the Nazis.
It removes deadlines and abolishes previous restrictions. Under the new
rules, German citizenship is now also available to descendants of German
mothers and to children born out of wedlock."*
My purpose of bringing this to your attention is that there must be many of
us whose families headed westwards from Bukovina to Germany and beyond and
we may now qualify for restoration of Citizenship or now be allowed to
apply. My family has submitted an application and it is now being processed
by the German authorities. Although not guaranteed, we hope to hear whether
or not we have been successful in 6 - 12 months.
I hope this is of interest and, although I am not an expert, please let me
know if I can help with providing any further information.
Kind regards
Alan
PS - our Plan B is to apply to Romania - we have also started to explore
this process but it may be put on hold if things start to move more quickly
with Germany
--
Alan Gavurin
(m) 07973 424357
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Received on 2021-07-04 18:01:52