From: <janmallen@att.net>
To: IAJGS Leadership Forum <leadership@iajgs.org>
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Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:35:16 -0800
Subject: [IAJGS Leadership] (Germany) The German Parliament Rejects Proposed Law that Would Have Guaranteed Naturalization for German Jews Who Fled the Nazis
The German Parliament, the Bundestag, rejected a proposed law that would have guaranteed naturalization for German Jews who fled the Nazis. On January 30, "reparation in the German nationality law" was on the agenda of Germany's parliament. The move for this legislation resulted from over 6,000 applications in 2017 and 2018 under the existing Article 116 Constitution provision. That provision states” former German citizens who, between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945, were deprived of their citizenship on political, racial or religious grounds and their descendants shall, on application, have their citizenship restored.” Because of the large number of declinations, Germany announced in two legal decrees that it would make naturalization easier for German Jews who fled the Nazis because of persecution, and for their descendants. As a result the legislation was introduced by the Article 116 Exclusions Group which represents more than 100 people, mostly of Jewish descent, who have had applications rejected or been told they are not eligible to apply.
The legislation failed because two political parties felt the decrees were sufficient: center-right Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU+CSU), and center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
I have no more information on this, or naturalization issues for former German Jews or their descendants. Please do not ask me any more as I only have what is in the news article below.
To read more see:
Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee
