ANT KATZ
The German Embassy in Pretoria has issued thousands of passports to South Africans and is continuing to issue German re-naturalisations at an average rate of 75 per year, almost all to descendants of dispossessed German Jewry.
Estimates and extrapolations of the Embassy’s data suggest that well over 1 000 Jews have availed themselves of their right to German citizenship since 2000. And many thousands more did so prior to that date. Their offspring are then born as German nationals.
Kirsten Hardt from the consular and legal section of the German Embassy in Pretoria, who deals with the applications, told Jewish Report that the vast majority of applicants are Jewish South Africans who were applying on the basis that their families had been dispossessed of their property and had their citizenship revoked by the Nazis.
Steven Adler of Johannesburg applied for, and received, German citizenship “in the 1970s”. His late parents came from Germany, he explained, and one of the main reasons motivating his decision at the time “was because of the savings on visa expenses” when he travelled on business. “I can go almost anywhere in the world without having to apply for, or pay for a visa,” he said, adding that it has saved him thousands of rand over the years.
“My two kids and nine grandchildren all have German passports as well,” he says.
Renée Snoyman, also from Johannesburg, says that after her mother, Maisy, regained her German citizenship in 1986, she applied for it herself. It was a simple process, she says. Her sister and daughter have since got their passports.
Maisy Snoyman arrived in South Africa at the age of eight with her brother and parents. “My grandfather had an inkling that it was time to get out,” says Renée. Her grandfather hailed from Berlin, her grandmother from Munich. “Every member of both their families perished,” she says. “My mom and uncle and their parents came over just before Kristallnacht.”
Renée’s motivation for getting German citizenship was “for ease of travelling”. She says: “If we can have it and we are entitled to it… why not? It is the best passport to have – I can go to 158 countries without a visa.”
Between January 30, 1933 and May 8, 1945 two laws were enacted by the Nazi regime that caused German Jews to lose their citizenship. The Law on the Revocation of Naturalisations and the Deprivation of German Citizenship deprived many German Jews of their citizenship.
All remaining former German citizens who were Jewish, however, lost their citizenship with the “Eleventh Decree to the Law on the Citizenship of the Reich” of 1941. This stipulated that Jews living outside Germany could not be German citizens.
Until 2000, only Swiss nationals were allowed by Germany to hold dual nationality – but a tweak in how Germany interpreted its strict immigration procedures at the turn of the century, means that those who were dispossessed by the Nazis and have the nationality of a country that allows dual-citizenship, such as South Africa, may now be allowed to hold on to both.
South African Jews who got their German citizenship prior to 2000 and retained their South African status, should now rectify their situation and become legal dual nationals, or they could face losing their German rights forever, says Hardt.
Since 2000 Germany has allowed dual nationality to South African Jews, as long as the applicants go to the SA Department of Home Affairs and apply for a “retention certificate” which gives them permission to retain their South African citizenship and thus hold dual-SA/German citizenship.
The German Embassy advises South Africans to get a retention certificate but it also relies on the say-so of the South African citizens that they have done so. Many do not, although Hardt says this is a simple rubber-stamping procedure which she has never seen denied by South Africa.
However, warns Hardt, “we have a small problem”, because once you get German papers – unless you have (official) retention, you are automatically no longer a South African citizen.
Other Jews flocking to become German
Following the Brexit vote in the UK, German authorities have reported a twentyfold increase in applications for reserved citizenship from British Jews.
In October 2016, The Guardian reported that “about 400 applications (by Jewish descendants of dispossessed Germans) from the UK are being processed by the authorities and 100 further enquiries that will ‘very probably’ lead to applications are in the pipeline.” This, said the newspaper, is compared to the “usual annual figure of about 25”.
Israelis are doing it too… Between 2000 and 2015, 33 321 Israelis were granted German citizenship. However, while 31 722 were allowed to keep their Israeli citizenship as well, 1 599 had to renounce it to become German.
While Germany’s Basic Law allows all Nazi-dispossessed Jews the right of citizenship, a later decree allowed all Israelis the right to German citizenship (as has always been the case with the Swiss). But because German law by default insists that all new citizens renounce their previous citizenship when they become German, Israelis who are not exempt by German origin, have to as well.
Rhoda
Mar 10, 2017 at 10:14 am
‘I can’t believe this – When travelling through Germany I won’t even drink a cup of coffee. I guess to each their own.’
Miriam.
Mar 10, 2017 at 1:46 pm
‘Rhoda, Chabad have built a 100sq. meter replica of the Kotel in Berlin using 19 tons of Jerusalem stone at the cost of millions. THey are reviving Judaism in this murderous country as fast as they can. Can you believe such a desecration of pure Jewish emotions?’
Gary Selikow
Mar 14, 2017 at 7:00 am
‘Germany has been a democracy for 72 years now
It’s unfair to blame modern Germans for the crimes of their ancestors
Most Germans today are NOT murderous
It’s as bad as the Nazis to hate all Germans even those born today’
nat cheiman
Mar 15, 2017 at 3:28 pm
‘Quite right Gary’
Choni
Mar 15, 2017 at 3:28 pm
‘With the utmost respect, Gary, I refer you to the fact that Germany has always been a thorn in the side of Israel from the middle ages onwards.
Here a few examples of anti-Jewish persecution in Germany.
1096-1229;The Crusades. Pogroms against the Jews of Speyer 1195. Pogroms against the Jews of Erfurt 1221.
pogroms of Mecklenberg 1225. Pogroms of Jews of Frankfurt;1241. The Rindfleisch massacares against the communities Franconia and Bavaria 1321.
Expulsion of Jews in Strasourg 1348.
There is simply no enough space to record all the tragedies that have befallen Jews from then until the Holocaust.
Modern anti -Semitic movements were conceived in the impurity of Germany both in terms of racist anti-Jewish ideology and the consequent actions e.g from Wagner to Hitler.
THe compilers of the Yizkor prayer were explicit to name Germany as \”Yemach shmom v’ Zichron.
Maybe there are many individual Germans who are \”innocent\” of anti-Semitism, but as a nation they will always be regarded as a Chilul Hashem.
‘
David B
Mar 16, 2017 at 11:07 am
‘@ Rhoda –What happened to rational thinking? If a German passport makes a South African family feel more relaxed relative to the future , why not ? Who are we to judge???’
Gary Selikow
Mar 20, 2017 at 5:49 pm
‘Living in South Africa we don’t have a leg to stand on attacking modern Germany
The ruling party of Germany, unlike the ANC, does not openly support BDS and IAW
The ruling party og Germany , unlike the ANC, does mot sponsor joint rallies with Hamas as the ANC did when Khaled Meshaal was a guest of the ANC in SA
Modern day Germany does not vote for every anti-Israel resolution in the UN
Germany’s current leadership have often expressed friendship with Israel.
Germany’s government havent threatened to strip German Jews of citizenship for havong served in the IDF as the ANC has for SA Jews who served in the IDF
‘
Choni
Mar 24, 2017 at 7:50 am
‘Gary, I’m not attacking modern Germany. I’m ‘attacking’ the Jews who want German Passports and those Jews who continue to live in that country.’
Taryn Cohn
Jan 25, 2018 at 10:23 am
‘I am a Jew who wants German citizenship and in fact has it. And I am also a South African and I live in South Africa.
While you are quick to denigrate all Germans for the Nazi attrocities and historical ones, as well as current Germans for right wing anti Semitic movements i have two points to make.
1. As South Africans we have fought long and hard to move out of the shadow of Apartheid which was as much an atrocity as the Holocaust was- and if you come back to say the Apartheid Government didnt murder 6Million blacks- I’ll say no, they didnt have death camps- but they have ensure that the lives of many many many many many millions more than 6 are essentially a struggle for survival under the most grotesque conditions. What Apartheid did to this Country will have ramifications for years to come. We have also spent years trying to walk the difficult path of being White in South Africa, many of whom did not support the ideaology and may or may not have been active to stop it- but dont believe they should be judged for it- Especially those who werent even born. SO lest we wish to be judged for the actions of our previous generations of White South Africans, lets be careful not to judge ALL Germans for antisemitism.
2. And i want my German passport becuase thats a part of who i am and where i come from. My grandfather was a refugee in this country from te Holocaust. He was as German as German can be until the day he died. The Nazis did what they did to Jews yes,- these these Jews were German. He didnt become any less German as a result of being Jewish and persecuted. I dont know if you have the same lineage but i will say, that you cannot and should not judge us for something that is part of our identity. Im no less White and South African no matter how much I object to the Apartheid past- and I cannot deny that it afforded me privileges that i still enjoy today as a result. I cant dismantle the system alone, but i cant pretend it isnt a part of where i come from. Identity isnt just what you choose it to be.
I am part German and Im an White and South African and Jewish. Someone doesn’t get to judge my choices by their opinions and assume your judgement is valid.
It simply makes them as guilty of prejudice as the people who contributed to both the Holocaust and Apartheid, whether activily or complicit by silence. ‘
Kira
May 31, 2018 at 6:23 pm
‘How do I go about proving that my great grandfather had his citizenship revoked? And would I then qualify to get a German passport? He was in oone of the little towns that was Polish at one point and then German or vice versa.’