British families rush to reclaim German citizenship

Thousands of Britons whose families fled Nazi Germany to the UK to escape persecution are applying for German citizenship because of Brexit.

There has been a surge of Britons invoking a German law under which the descendants of anyone who lost or gave up their citizenship to escape Nazi persecution can reclaim it.

A total of 3408 people living in the UK have applied to reclaim German citizenship under the law since the Brexit referendum.

Tens of thousands of mostly Jewish refugees fled to Britain from Germany and countries controlled by the Nazis in the lead-up to World War II. They include nearly 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children who were evacuated before the war and given refuge in Britain in the Kindertransport rescue mission. They were often the only members of their families to escape the Holocaust.

In 2015, the year before the referendum, Germany’s missions in the UK received just 59 applications to reclaim citizenship on any grounds. So far this year it is 1147.

The overwhelming majority have invoked the Nazi persecution law, which is enshrined in the German constitution. Details emerged in a written answer by the German Government to a parliamentary question from the Free Democrat Party.

Thousands of Britons living and working in Germany have also applied to naturalise to ensure they can remain there. — Daily Telegraph