GERMANY - Descendants of German Jews Claim EU Citizenship
Scott Mayerowitz grew up in New Jersey in a household with resentment toward Germany, his family’s motherland.
He has ancestors who were killed in the Holocaust, and his Jewish grandparents were forced to flee their homes there in the 1930s because of the Nazis.
But as the former political reporter turned travel consultant stood at the German consulate in New York in May 2024 during what he called a “very moving” naturalization ceremony to become a German citizen, he said he was surprised by his feelings.
Enshrined in the German constitution since 1949, Article 116 (2) of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany grants former German citizens who were persecuted and their descendants restored German citizenship.
For people who can prove their ancestral links and gather the required documents, German citizenship—and with it, European Union citizenship—is within reach.
Ann Barnett, 30, of Arlington, Virginia, said she was fortunate when applying to restore her German citizenship through a grandparent that a family member had paved the way before her by procuring all the old documents.
Barnett said she feels Germany has worked hard “to establish means of atonement for their wrongdoings and crimes against humanity”—a perspective that’s given her hope, even as the idea of traveling to Europe soon on her new German passport makes her stomach flutter with nerves.
“Seeking dual citizenship and a fire escape plan is good planning. It isn’t an issue of loyalty, but it could be an issue of survival,” [Stewart] Koesten said, referring to anti-immigration, anti-semitism, increasing gun incidents in schools, violence on the streets, political issues and income taxes among reasons a family might want an “emergency plan.”
Erin Levi, 41, a travel writer in Connecticut, said she has always wanted to live in Europe and envied friends who had the option to stay longer than a visa allows. She said she feels a bit safer in Germany, too, than other countries with rising anti-semitism.
“I think Germany has become such a strong ally and supporter of Israel. It’s incredible to see the responsibility they’ve taken for the atrocities they committed. There aren’t that many other countries that have,” she said.
-www.cnn.com, 7 August 2024
Commentary
Throughout most of the diaspora—when they were scattered throughout the world, but mainly in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa— Jews and their descendants were not entitled to full citizenship in the countries they inhabited. In fact, there were often laws that prescribed where they could live, study, work … even the clothes they had to wear. The emancipation of Jews in Europe only really started in the 1800s.
So, it is not surprising that Jews—this continuously oppressed people—seek backup citizenships. Many “make Aliyah” to Israel to secure Israeli citizenship, even if they later return to the place of their birth.
The specter of antisemitism is evident everywhere, not only from Muslims but also—distressingly—from left-wing and right-wing antisemites in Western countries. Therefore, it is understandable that modern Jews want to collect citizenships to give them options if and when their country becomes unsafe.
We know that eventually, God will gather all of His people to their land: “And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country” (Ezekiel 34:13). -By J. Froese
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
