GERMAN PASSPORT RUSH

THERE HAS been a surge in the number of British Jews who are now applying for German citizenship as part of a wider rush to obtain European Union passports.

Official figures show there has been a 40-fold increase in applications by Britons whose families fled the Nazis since the UK voted to leave the EU in July 2016.

Last year, there were 1,667 applications for German citizenship from refugees’ descendants — while in 2015 there were just 43.

Michael Newman, chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, told the FT Weekend that the surge was clearly linked to Brexit.

He said: “For some this is mainly about practical considerations. For others this also about reclaiming something that belonged to them or their parents. It’s part of their identity.” But he suggested some made their applications as a “protest against Brexit”.

According to Germany’s 1949 constitution, citizenship is granted to anyone who lost their nationality for “political, racial or religious reasons.”

After coming to power in 1933, the Nazis stripped thousands of German Jews of citizenship.

In 1941, the regime withdrew German citizenship from all Jews who had left the country at that time.

Mr Newman said there was a “deep irony” descendants of Jewish refugees were now applying for passports in a country where their families were persecuted and murdered.

This weekend more than 650,000 people — including representatives from the Jewish Labour Movement — took part in the march in London demanding a second referendum on exiting Europe.

Claims from families of refugees is up 40-fold