Berlin eases citizenship rules for Nazi victims’ offspring

BERLIN: Berlin from Friday eased rules allowing the descendants of people who fled Nazi Germany to reclaim citizenship.

Germany must "live up to its historical responsibility with regards to those affected," said Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. While Germany already has rules allowing descendants of persecuted Jews to reclaim citizenship, the two decrees that came into force on Friday closed several loopholes that had previously shut others out.

People who previously would not have been accorded German nationality, because their father was a foreigner and whose mother lost her German citizenship under the Nazis, for example, can now also benefit from the new rules.

The ministry stressed that no one should be shut out because the Nazi-era injustice was too far back in time. Second, third, fourth "and in some cases fifth generation" descendants can apply, said the ministry.

"Persecuted persons and their descendants, who had been previously excluded from naturalisation because of the morally unjust legal situation, can now have the opportunity to acquire German citizenship under eased conditions," said Josef Schuster, who heads the Central Council of Jews in Germany.