Rabbi Walter Rothschild, whose grandparents fled Nazi Germany in 1939, reclaimed his German citizenship following Brexit. The decision was fueled by a sense of loss of homeland and a desire to reconnect with his family's roots.
Rabbi Walter Rothschild, from Bradford in the UK, claimed German citizenship after Brexit. The Nazis had stripped his grandparents of their German citizenship after they fled the country in 1939. Photograph: Adam Berry
The moment they left their homeland, Nazi Germany stripped the Rothschilds of their citizenship and recorded the fact in the Nazi state gazette. Rothschild’s grandfather never returned to Germany nor did he reclaim his citizenship. Because of the beatings he received in Dachau his health declined rapidly in Switzerland. In 1950, after battling the German state to receive his pension, he received a letter offering him his old job back in the Hannover court. A short time later he died, still stateless.
Yet he feels the German response to the October 7th Hamas massacre in Israel was not wholehearted enough – a feeling many of his Jewish friends share, he says. Fritz, his sister Annaliese and brother Ernest were among the tens of thousands of people who fled Germany after the 1938 pogrom against Jewish homes, business and places of worship. Millions more were unable or unwilling to get out – until it was too late.Growing up, Elana says she was always aware of the injustice done to her family, in particular how their citizenship was taken away. It was Elana’s mother who had the idea of applying for restoration of citizenship around 16 years ago.
In the unremarkable Washington embassy room, Elana found her mind drifting back to her family and their escape. Though they were lucky to survive, unlike millions of others, but the violent break with Germany thwarted their life plans forever. After the re-election of US president Donald Trump, and in a world of rising authoritarian leaders, does she view her German citizenship any differently now? Elana, who was already a dual US-Israel citizen, still puts her German citizenship in the “nice to have” category. It allows her children to live, work or study on this side of the Atlantic should they so wish in the future.
Adam Berry: 'There has been a sweeping generalisation and monolithisation in Germany of how"we" are supposed to feel about Israel.' Photograph: Gil HoltenAdam Berry, a photographer and television producer from South Carolina, has lived in Berlin for 20 years and secured his citizenship on the basis of residency rather than the constitutional provision in Article 116.
What sealed the deal for him was a German citizenship law change earlier this year allowing him retain, rather than relinquish, his US citizenship. Another motivation was a wish for political representation to match his German taxation. “There has been a sweeping generalisation and monolithisation here of how ‘we’ are supposed to feel about Israel,” he says.
GERMAN CITIZENSHIP NAZI ERA FAMILY ROOTS BREXIT JEWISH HERITAGE
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