British Jews are applying for German citizenship because of Brexit
It’s a massive psychological leap, particularly for those who are second or third generation descendants of those who fled Nazi Germany.
The Brexit referendum changed Britain forever, but it’s a change not all Brits have embraced.
There has been a High Court challenge to the process of leaving the European Union. The Irish embassy in London has had a run on dual nationality passports.
And, perhaps most surprisingly, more than 550 British Jews have applied for German citizenship.
A year ago this would have been unthinkable. Many British Jews lost family members in the Holocaust and were raised with a deep resentment of Germany.
But the threat of losing the right to automatically live, work and study in EU countries is leading British Jews of German heritage to apply for second passports.
Julia Neuberger’s mother, Liesel Rosenthal, fled Nazi Germany in 1937. Most of her mother’s family perished in the Holocaust.
Like many in the UK, her identity is complicated. She is a proud Londoner, a proud Brit, and a proud European.
Baroness Neuberger is also a Rabbi and a member of the most British of institutions, the House of Lords, but that is not stopping her from applying for German citizenship.
“I’m seeking German citizenship for a number of reasons,” she said.
“One is I’m really upset about Brexit and I want to retain that part of my identity, which is proudly European.”
“But secondly and importantly, Germany has for me made an attempt to do what it can to recognise the terrible things it was responsible for from 1933 to 1945.”
‘A huge irony’
Under German law, descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis are eligible for citizenship.
Michael Newman is the chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, an organisation that has fielded dozens of inquiries from British Jews about how to apply for a German passport.
“Post-war one of the things we did was to help people acquire British nationality, so coming full circle today there is a huge irony in passing on guidance for people to become perhaps German citizens again,” he said.
Mr Newman is applying for German citizenship himself.
“I don’t want to lose any of the rights of access to the single market, to travel visa-free to other EU countries. I’m wondering how it will be for my children in the future whether they will have the right to work and study in those countries,” he said.
It is a massive psychological leap for British Jews, particularly those who are second or third generation descendants of those who fled Nazi Germany.
Many worry what their ancestors would have thought. It is something Baroness Neuberger has also pondered.
“I don’t know what my mother would have thought, my mother felt very badly about Germany. She only went back to Germany once,” she said.
“My various friends who knew her, friends who were younger, who are in their 90s now, they think she would’ve been relaxed about it, but I don’t know.”
