A law passed in the German Parliament removes the obstacles faced by the victims and their descendants
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Germany has just passed a new law to grant citizenship to the descendants of victims of Nazism.
German lawmakers have approved changes that will make it easier for descendants of those who fled Nazi persecution to obtain citizenship.
Under German law, people stripped of their citizenship for political, racial or religious reasons can regain it, as can their descendants.
But the legal loopholes had prevented that many people will benefit.
Activists claim that the measure allows many to reconnect with their German heritage, especially in the Jewish community.
“We recognize the work that the German people have done to honor the memory of the lost and those who suffered in the ”Stated Felix Couchman, Chairman of the Group Excluded from Article 116, who has been campaigning on the issue for years.
“These measures have been necessary steps to rebuild trust,” he added.
Although the post-war German Constitution allows to recover the citizenship, the lack of a legal framework meant that many people saw their applications rejected.
Some were denied because their ancestors had adopted another nationality before citizenship was revoked.
For others the reason was that they had been born to a German mother, but not a German father. Until a change in the law in 1953, German citizenship could only be transmitted through the father.
In 2019 a statutory decree was passed to help close these issues, but it is now, by passing with a large majority in the lower house of the Bundestag, the German Federal Parliament, that potential applicants will have a stronger legal basis for your appeal.
The law also covers those who were directly deprived of their citizenship, but, as time passes, the descendants will be the main the beneficiaries.
The new law also prohibits the naturalization of people convicted of racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic acts .
“Sorry with deep shame”
“It is not just about putting things in their right place, but about apologizing with deep shame,” declared Interior Minister Horst Seehofer in March when the government approved the bill.
“It is a great fortune for our country that people want to be German, even though we take everything away to their ancestors. ”
Measure arrives when neighboring Poland is at the point targeted by a bill that critics say would make it difficult for Jews to recover property confiscated by Nazi occupiers during World War II.
The bill, approved by the lower house of the Polish Parliament on Thursday, has been condemned by the United States and Israel.
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