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This feels a little weird, but:
Germany will restore the citizenship of people who were deprived of German citizenship by the Nazis, and give citizenship to those people's descendants (mostly Jewish* Holocaust survivors and their descendants). That used to be only the children of German fathers, but sometime last year they changed that, and I stumbled across an article about it a few weeks ago.
I don't speak German, and don't want to move to Germany, but it would be an EU passport, and after the last few years, that feels like valuable insurance.
The German government's website has a form to use for "restoration of citizenship." They explicitly say that you don't have to use the form, but that it will help them find the records to prove eligibility.
I'm putting together a list of documents and information that I'm going to be asking my mother for. I'm also going to want help from someone who speaks German--the form is in German, and must be filled out in German, and Google translate is fine for "what's the German for January?" but not for things that need a little context. In particular, do they want every change of address, or is "I lived in New York City from the time I was born until 1985" sufficient?
Germany will restore the citizenship of people who were deprived of German citizenship by the Nazis, and give citizenship to those people's descendants (mostly Jewish* Holocaust survivors and their descendants). That used to be only the children of German fathers, but sometime last year they changed that, and I stumbled across an article about it a few weeks ago.
I don't speak German, and don't want to move to Germany, but it would be an EU passport, and after the last few years, that feels like valuable insurance.
The German government's website has a form to use for "restoration of citizenship." They explicitly say that you don't have to use the form, but that it will help them find the records to prove eligibility.
I'm putting together a list of documents and information that I'm going to be asking my mother for. I'm also going to want help from someone who speaks German--the form is in German, and must be filled out in German, and Google translate is fine for "what's the German for January?" but not for things that need a little context. In particular, do they want every change of address, or is "I lived in New York City from the time I was born until 1985" sufficient?
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Had I known then what I know now.........
I have Latvian Jewish ancestry and lost relatives in the Sho'ah. If other countries follow suit, I may have a chance of regaining an EU passport, otherwise being married to a Scot may be my only other chance.
I suspect they'd want every individual address. I know of fourteen where I've lived because I was pondering on this very thing for no apparent reason the other night before sleep.
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I don't speak enough German to help with the form. You might try reaching out to the German consulate for help. You'd go through them to get a passport in any case. Here's the website I found on a quick search. https://www.germany.info/us-en/embassy-consulates/boston
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Glad the government is doing this, for many reasons.
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P.
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My stepfather is one of the people affected by this expansion of German citizenship through his mother, and has submitted his application. I could ask him if he's willing to offer advice from his experience, if you like.
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I would give near anything to make the base cause vanish, but... as that will not happen, this would be something I would LOVE to have as an option.
Good luck!
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My mother literally has a medal for "services to Holocaust education." Mostly that's for presentations to secondary school classes, but she has been giving Zoom talks about her and her parents' experiences during the Holocaust.
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