It’s time to move on. I’ve told my German American Jewish story on this blog and in various publications over the last five years and reached a very broad audience. Now I plan to put together a compilation of stories of people who have reclaimed their citizenship under Article 116 of Germany’s Basic Law.
I believe our German citizenship stories are an important part of post-Holocaust history. These stories occasionally appear in the press, but there has been little comprehensive treatment of this topic since members of families that were persecuted by the Nazis began applying for restored citizenship after WWII. Reclaiming our citizenship is a part of reconciliation, helping us come to terms with the past, and live more fully in the present. It’s something positive to seize hold of, keeping us from being “stuck in time” even when we find it painful to revisit our family history. Our stories also have relevance for new generations of refugees and displaced persons.
If you have reclaimed your citizenship or are going through the process, please consider contributing your story to this book project. Submissions from South America, Israel, South Africa, the U.K., the U.S. and other parts of the diaspora are welcome. I’m also interested in including stories of those whose applications were rejected because only their mother was Jewish or due to other quirks in the German law. I’ve put together a list of German Citizenship Book Project Questions to help you think about and organize your story. Click on the link to download the list and you can start writing!
I do not yet have a publisher for this book but I will work hard to find one. If you have suggestions, advice, ideas, or questions, please post a comment or contact me at dswartho@aol.com. Please also share this post with any individuals or organizations who may be interested in this project.
Donna Swarthout 
Hi Donna,
We have corresponded before. I am originally from New York City, and have lived in Missoula, Montana for almost thirty years. My parents and grandparents were German, and just this year I obtained my restored German citizenship. I am still waiting for my son’s, though we applied in August.
I am interested in writing a piece for the book you are proposing. I read the helpful questions that you have posted. What length are you thinking of for each piece? I am actually working on a longer piece about my family, and would love to see how my ideas and experience might fit in with the project as it develops.
My family and I are spending a sabbatical year in Cambridge, U.K., and will probably get to Germany this spring or early summer. I have not been to Germany since 1977, when I went to my mother’s hometown of Frankfurt.
All the best, Mona Bachmann
Hi Mona,
Yes, I remember corresponding with you. Thanks so much for being in touch about the book project. I just emailed a letter to the people who have expressed interest in contributing a piece for the book. Is it alright with you if I forward the letter to your email address? It will give you some additional information and if you like I can then add you to the group list for further updates.
Great that you will be in Europe and are planning a trip to Germany. Let me know if you come to Berlin!
Best,
Donna
Re: Sec. 116 (2) Naturalization.
I renewed my German citizenship back in April of 1984.
I came back to Israel after finishing my university degrees in the USA I couldn’t find a decent job. My father was born in Breslau and still had his kinderpass and his father’s J-passport and his original birth certificate. My mother was born as a Dutch subject in Oldenburg, but she still had her kinderpass and a certified copy of an administrative court order from a family court in Oldenburg. My grandmother lost her German citizenship when she married my Grandfather ( a foreigner although he himself was born in Germany as a Dutch subject), After they got divorced, the court ordered the return of my grandmother’s German citizenship, and that is the way my mother became a German citizen. Oldenburg was then an independent city like Bremen.
The whole process then took me six months (my parents got it in three month ahead of me) My twin brother got it in 1987, and then my sisters and their offspring.. Most of my relatives and friends got their citizenship restored as well.
I managed to get a decent job as as an advertising media planer in London. I worked for a large British advertising agency .My nephew went to a flight academy and became an air line pilot for Loganair in Scotland. He couldn’t have done it with out an EU passport. He now flies for El-Al.. For tax considerations, I have moved my fiscal domicile to Cyprus which is a full member state of the European Union. This was don with minimal red tape.
The whole process was kept secret from my parental grandmother. She would have killed my father and myself had she known. She had vowed never go back to Germany. Her second husband ( my paternal grandfather died three months after arriving in Palestine), a Berlin born doctor ( graduated from University of Berlin), served as a military doctor in the British Army in North Africa during the war. She even refused to fly over Germany. The twin brother of my parental grandfather was killed in the initial stages of World War I in Belgium. On my maternal side. The sister of my maternal grandmother died in Ravensbrueck. Her husband died in Birkenau.. My mother’s uncle who served in the British Army after immigrating illegally to Palestine was a POW in Stalag VIII in Germany. He survived the war. My maternal grandfather survived the war in Holland. My mother’s half sister lives in Holland. She is a Dutch citizen. My maternal grand-grand mother ( a convert to Judaism) and my maternal grand- grand father survived the Allied bombing of Hamburg, and the war.
Their son who was a British POW corresponded with them via the Red-Cross as he was in Stalagv VIII in Germany. Insane! I know, but true. The history of my family and their survival with all the documents, photos, and correspondence are at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. They are open for researchers.
(under the name Abraham Levi Papers) I have never lived in Germany and have no plans to do so. For me, the passport is just a golden key. If you want more information please feel free to write to me.
Abraham Levi
Dear Abraham, Thanks for sharing some of the details of your citizenship story. I wasn’t sure from what you wrote if your original citizenship is Israeli or American. I like the phrase “golden key.” It sounds like your German citizenship has significantly altered the course of your life so please let me know by email if you would like to further develop what you wrote for the book. If you would prefer to write in Hebrew we could find someone for translation.
Best wishes,
Donna
Dear Donna, If you need any assistance by all means.write to me.You have my E-mail. I am quite familiar with the Sec. 116 (2) procedures. I assisted many of my Yekes friends and members of my extended Yeke family as they had been going through the procedure themselves. I know a lot about the Sec. 116 (2) procedures, including many possible complications. I will be glad to help you with your book.. If you need some extra expertise help, there are at least three lawyers in Israel who specialize in that procedure..
With best wishes
Abraham Levi.
Dear Donna,
I posted this on the website because I e-mail doesn’t respond.
Dear Dona,
I have tried to E-mail you, but it would take my E-mails, so I posted on the website.
Abraham
I was amused to read that your grandmother refused even to fly over Germany. My mother (b. 1916) also refused to visit Germany or even to speak German, but when I was a child we once went on holiday to Austria. I remember that our flight landed in Munich and we got a coach to Salzburg. It was late at night. I think because it was so dark, and we were only in transit, she felt it wasn’t really visiting Gemany!
Oh, the inconsistency. Or did she really want to break her vow and was glad of an excuse to touch foot in her country of origin after all?
This could be a good vignette for your story, Sylvia!
I’m adding new vignettes every day, Donna, I just have to pull them all together!
I can match the story just posted by Sylvia… My parents and myself also travelled by
air to Salzburg around 1956.. There were terrible floods so we too had to land
at Munich Airport and continue by road with luggage stashed on the roof of the bus
getting drenched. I have the childhood memory of my mother , born 1919, locking herself in the toilets away from the local police.
It took her another 35 years to return to Germany to visit her cousin Dora Schaul, a true communist/socialist who had returned to
East Berlin after a busy war in the resistance including working in the Lyon Gestapo Post Office , recording names of important nazis in her shoes and bringing the name Klaus Barbie to the attention of the Allies
That is an amazing story!
Dear Abraham, I sent you an email. I hope you received it. Donna
Is there a likelihood of retrograde minor modifications to the Law???
Maternal inheritance only starts at 1953 births so I do not qualify there even though my mothers family had been there for several generations.
My father of Austrian birth and technically German following Anschluss also rules me out
Hi Eric, I suggest doing some research and/or consulting an attorney regarding your eligibility. Perhaps you are eligible through your maternal grandfather or you may be eligible for Austrian citizenship through your father. You might also make an appointment with your German Consulate if you’ve not done so already. I hope the book I am working on will bring attention to these issues and help promote a change in the law. Thanks for posting your comment. Donna
Donna . Thanks for the advice.. A younger 2nd cousin is doing his paperwork.
If you give me an email address I can send you the Austrian rules which are mindbogglingly complex. The German rules are teutonic. I read that until April 1 1953 German citizenship could be acquired from father only. http://www.uk.diplo.de
ie Your suggestion of claiming via mothers father does not sound legit. I shall follow up
As a side issue, a friend of mine, John Smith , does editorial work at EuroWeeklyNews which is totally outside our field normally as targetted at
GB expats in Spain and Gibraltar.. Following Brexit he has already done an illustrated feature on 116. I am sure you can count on him for a feature on your forthcoming book………..There will be huge numbers of assimilated Brits unhappy to be losing EC identity
Dear Donna,
I only became aware of your book project recently, thank you for tackling this very interesting subject.
Your posts are dated well over a year ago. Are you still looking for contributions? And if so, how long should they be approximately?
Best wishes,
Sylvia
Dear Sylvia, thanks for your interest in the book project. I”m excited to say that I have found a publisher for the book and I will soon share the news on my blog. I’m still accepting submissions, but have some specific types of contributors I’m interested in since I already have quite a few submissions. Feel free to email me at dswartho@aol.com and I can provide you with additional information. Thanks again for being in touch and best wishes from Berlin, Donna
Dear Eric,
I’m in a similar situation to you, born in 1948 to an Italian Jewish father and a German Jewish mother. Following a talk at the Wiener Library by Juliane Busch of the German Embassy, a small group has formed to consider taking joint legal (or other) action to challenge this rule. Might you, or anyone else you know, be interested in joining this group?
Sylvia
I would contribute a token 100euro
I am not in urgent need of citizenship but I would be proud to reinherit ciizenship which went back to Prussia and the days of Jews not having proper surnames
Thanks, Eric. I fear if we were to take legal advice, 100€ each wouldn’t go very far, as this is less than a solicitor earns in one hour, and there aren’t many of us so far. Perhaps there will be a solicitor among us though. Please do let me know if you’d be interested in joining the discussion group initially, which will also decide how the admin would be done, as I don’t have the time or energy to do it.
Best wishes,
Sylvia
Sylvia
I would contribute 100euro to start/ support a movement
It would lead to restoration of Citizenship awarded to Jews in order to make them legal citizens of Prussia in 1830 and take surnames and become taxpaying citizens
Hi Eric,
Thanks for getting back to me. So far we’re just a group of people who are considering taking action, discussing how best to organise it. The best would be if I could add your email address to this group. Do you know of others in the same position who might also be interested?
You could either send me your email address here, or if you don’t feel easy about the lack of privacy, perhaps via Donna, if, Donna, you’re willing?
Good to hear from you,
Best,
Sylvia
I don’t mind being a conduit for information but you are also welcome to write a guest post for my blog and let people know how they can contact you. I think this is more of a political than a legal issue, i.e. the law is being enforced exactly as it is written so the law itself needs to be changed. Perhaps the group could start out by looking at different approaches.
Yes, Donna, you’re right. One problem of course is that the exclusion only applies to those born before 1953, and any political change would inevitably take for ever….
Taking legal action was suggested by Juliane Busch, the person at the German Embassy in London responsible for processing all the restored citizenship applications in England and Wales.
There was press report in Haaretz last week that new government in Austria are planning to allow 200000 of us to reclaim Austrian citizenship as part of a new friendlier attitude to Israel
I have reply this morning from Consular officer in London at Consular Department
to say the Gov is only talking about changing the rules which are ridiculously demanding, I am told that no further instructions can be given but perhaps an appendix for your book.. When is it ready?
I give up qualifying for Germany as i cannot see them wanting to allow inheritance on pre 1953 female side retroactively unlike the Austrians talking about making a clean sweep for male and female
eric elias
Dear Eric,
I can understand if you want to give up because it’s a lot of work and anxiety, but I wouldn’t give up on Germany! Germany is very keen to maintain its image of confronting its past. And there aren’t that many of us.
Sylvia
Sylvia
A change of Government in Austria may be a catalyst for returning Austrian citizenship
Being realistic we are a minority within a minority.
What catalyst can we come up with that will result in changed legislation.
Yes a book will be published and read and discussed but being realistic there are more pressing issues ,,,ironically migration in todays world on the political agenda
I’m not sure, Eric. But I believe no-one has tried, and without trying, of course nothing will change. It’s a shame you won’t agree to join a small email group of us to discuss the best way forward. After all, it would cost Germany next to nothing to grant us citizenship as I believe we have to agree to forfeit any claim to a pension or health care.
All best,
Sylvia
Sylvia and Eric,
Yes, I did read about the Austrian rule change and I think it is very encouraging. This is something I could possibly mention in the Intro or Preface to the book. I hope the book will be published by the end of 2018. It takes about 6 months to publish once the manuscript is complete. Once the book is published, I’ll have more opportunities to speak out on these issues and bring more visibility to them. Donna
i still support the project of of recouping citizenship.
In reality it is possibly doable .. Germany regularly has new Presidents
It would be wonderful if one of them would take up the cause.. Just as eah year
a New Lord Mayor takes up a new charity in the City of London for support
But they’re unlikely to do anything if not asked by us! It can hardly be anyone’s priority on their own initiative! Has anyone asked the current politicians? 🙂
Eric, My husband and his brother are Jewish through their mother but she was born in Shanghai as a refugee so I don’t think she was ever a German citizen. They had their German citizenship restored based on their descent from their maternal grandfather who escaped in 1939.
We’re a small group of people, mainly in the UK and the US, who aren’t eligible for restored German citizenship due to being born in wedlock before 1st April 1953 to a German Jewish mother but a non-German father. We’re initially an email group discussing how best to challenge this rule, which is probably incidental (being based on citizenship law at the time) rather than intentional.
If this applies to you and you’re interested in joining the group, please email me at finzis@gmail.com
Dear Donna
I wrote the following letter in January of this year, applying for German citizenship.
I am writing this letter in support of my application for German citizenship.
My grandfather was a Jew, born in Pozenand the son of a Rabbi. He fought in the First World War. In 1919 he married my grandmother, a non Jew and only daughter of a judge. They settled in Bielefeld at Bismarck Strasse 1e and he ran a successful business. Three children were born of the marriage, my mother Barbara being the middle child.
With the rise of Hitler and the nazis life became increasingly fragile and precarious. In 1938 my grandfather was forced to flee, taking with him my mother who had been particularly tormented and discriminated at school. They entered Britain as l’inégal refugees leaving behind my grandmother, uncle and aunt (Mischlinge).
The family home was confiscated, my grandmother for ed to live in one room, my aunt arrested and taken to a shave Labour camp (TODT), my uncle apprenticed to a baker who was a nazi member and threatened to denounce him if he ever protested about the inhuman conditions he was for ed to work under.
My mother and grandfather went to live in Golders Green. NW London., were interned on the Iske of Man when war broke out , then returned to Golders Green upon their release.
(In the 1980’s my mother and grandfather were both interviewed by an official from the Imperial War Museum with regard to their experiences both in nazi Germanyand wartime London. The museum holds these interviews in their archives.)
I was brought up in NW London in an area heavily populated with Jewish Refugees. It was dynamic, interesting and a tolerant place in which to live. As a family we celebrated some German customs and habits but the last was not discussed and German not spoken at home.
For most of my life I have had no difficulty in being defined as British, because ai never saw a difference between Britishness and a sense of being European, which I have always defined myself as being. Now, with the results of the. Titiste referendum, I feel profoundly distressed, and profoundly distressed by the ensuing racist and triumphalist behaviour that this result has produced. I feel, as a result, that a core part of my identity is being snatched away. I realise that my identity lies firmly within a European construct and not on sone mid Atlantic shelf to which Brexit supporters wish to confine Britain.
O am, therefore, applying for German citizenship because I want to explore my roots and heritage and I want to walk freely in my European land.
Unfortunately, my application was refused because I was applying through my mother and was born in 1945. This application was, therefore, deemed unacceptable. I think that that response is unacceptable and have subsequently written letters to various people and bodies with very little success so far. I had a letter published in the Guardian 14/06/17 which elicited several responses. The German home office acknowledges the problem but, as yet, seems disinclined to rectify this injustice. My feeling is that it all needs to be challenged by an organisation or body of influential people. Singly, and without legal expertise, it is very difficult.. the larger and more vocal a challenge is, the more likelihood there will be of success.
Kind regards to all
Barbara Hanley
Dear Barbara, thank you for sharing your letter on my blog. I hope my book will help bring attention to this inequity in the law.
Warm regards,
Donna
There is a Facebook group for descendants of German Jewish mothers born before 1953 to discuss restoration of German citizenship. If interested in joining, email a description of your background to: GermanCitizenshipRestoration@outlook.com
Thank You for the invitation….
I am joining you today and hope the project will go beyond discussions.
In real life all around us we see misjustice being rectified even at late stages
with Britain sorting out Windrush misjustice and apologising for whatever is deemed
as politically correct such as historic slavery
Lets go for it……….In our Lifetimes
I just read a feature that Baroness Julia Neuberger/ Rabbi Julia Neuberger started writing about her post Brexit application for citizenship.. Many articles can be found on google 2016/17 and then it goes quiet,
I just read that she is now on board challenging with fury her/our situation but I just cannot find the link again.. Maybe such a new story it will appear on google in days to come
Jewish News 22 June 22 features text of her interview together with an hour long interview earlier this week
Enjoy
She has political clout and is entering A TEST CASE
Here is the link to the story you mention: http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/baroness-neuberger-jews-in-the-labour-party-should-resign-over-anti-semitism-row/
This is very interesting. If the German government makes an exception for Julia Neuberger (because she was born before 1953), then they should do so for others in the same situation.
On another note, my book is nearing completion and should be published late this year.
I see from the Jekke facebook group that your book has reached the proofing stages. Please try adding a final update on the Brexit programme which is of great
concern to those of us not on your side of the Atlantic.. I hope you are addressing the sexist law that is still prevailing for those of us born before 1953 at a time
when Pride in all other areas is a priority and not illegal as it was not so many years ago
Hi Eric my contribution revolves quite a bit around Brexit. I’m the only contributor from the UK
There are actually two contributors from the UK.
Apologies, Donna, I must have misunderstood, I thought you’d lost the other one which is why you wanted me to contribute at short notice. Please do delete my comment.
Thanks
No apologies necessary and no need to delete. You can also edit your comment and I can delete mine. Either way, I’m very happy to have 2 contributors from the UK and to have both the Brexit and the 1953 date issue addressed in the book.
Eric, thanks for your comment. Sylvia does a nice job in the book addressing the unfair nature of the ‘born before 1953’ issue. I will also continue to speak out on this issue after the book comes out.
Will you also address those born to German mothers before 1974? My husband born 1968 to German mom American dad, is just out of luck, the deadline to apply for a waver was during a time they lived in America and didn’t check in with the embassy (not knowing this was issue) they moved back and forth a few times, and we lived there from 1997-2003 but were never able to get his German citizenship. He was raised speaking German and our children are both fluent and have gone to school there also.
This discriminatory law has been changed but not with any kind of help for those it impacted.
My understanding is that he should be eligible under Article 116 (2) if he meets the other criteria. I suggest meeting (or speaking by phone) with the staff at your regional German Consulate. I believe it is now routine to make an exception for those born between 1953 and 1974.
Yes he does qualify, but unfortunately 116 only covers naturalization, so his adult children will not be German. He wants to be recognized as born with German citizenship (as he believed he was) then our kids will have options too.