Reclaiming Your Birthright: How to Get German Citizenship in the Context of Restitution

Everyone Is Moving To Berlin

Deborah's father was 16 when he fled Nazi Germany during a rescue effort of Jewish children known as the Kindertransport. He later raised a family in Australia and almost never spoke German anymore. Deborah and her siblings didn't consider claiming German citizenship until well into their adult lives. In this episode, Deborah shares why she finally decided to apply for a German passport under Section 15 of the Nationality Act, which allows victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants to become naturalized German citizens.

Show Notes

Historical Context

• Nuremberg Laws (Wikipedia)
• Kristallnacht (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
• 9 November in German history (Wikipedia)
• Kindertransport (Wikipedia)
• Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (Vimeo)

1948 German Basic Law & Eligibility Clause

• German Citizenship Restoration (Wikipedia)
• German citizenship for descendants of Nazi victims (DW)

Why Children of German Jews Would Apply for Citizenship

• 'Sorry, Dad - I'm thinking of getting a German passport' (BBC)
• My Holocaust-surviving grandparents were stripped of their German citizenship by the Nazis. 80 years on, I'm one of the hundreds of Jews who have decided to reclaim it in 2021. (INSIDER)

Process for Application for German Citizenship

• Amendment to German citizenship law (Federal Office of Administration)

Searching for Your Berlin Ancestors

• Berlin address books (Digitale Landesbibliothek Berlin)
• How to search for family in Berlin (Landesarchiv Berlin)
• List of Berlin financial compensation applied for by German Jews, deprived of their business and homes in WW11 (WGA Datenbank)

Genealogy Sites

• Ancestry: paid subscription, has a good collection of German records
• My Heritage: paid subscription, has millions of records, including Jewish & Israeli records
• Myers Gazetteer – includes information on German place names & locations from 1871-1912
• Family Search: free, millions of records
• Geni: basic subscription is free

Specific Sites for Information about Jewish Family

• Arolsen Archives: free site, includes information about trnasports to concentration camps
• Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
• Israel State Archives
• JewishGen – mostly free
• JRI Poland (Jewish records for towns that were in Poland)
• Leo Baeck Institute: a New York-Berlin research archive with a focus on German-Jewish history
• World Jewish Relief Fund
• Yad Vashem – an Israel site for Holocaust records

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