Hi Alan My grandparents and my mother were all born in the Austro Hungarian Empire and my grandfather died in the Ghetto in Czernowitz. I was born in Bucharest after WW2 and still have all my and my parent’s Romanian papers.
For the same reason as you - Austro Hungarian ancestry - I had considered applying for Austrian citizenship but of course the persecutions occurred under the then Romanian government and therefore I doubted I would qualify for Austrian citizenship – reading the documents available on line I reached the conclusion that the Austrians would not consider my family as having suffered from Nazi persecution under the Austrian regime – Czernowitz was no longer part of Austria and my family had to become Romanian citizens soon after WW1. Living in the UK I wanted EU citizenship (since the UK opted to leave the EU) both for myself and my daughter and her children, so instead I applied for Romanian citizenship about 9 months ago. I am told that obtaining Romanian citizenship (which my family was obliged to give up when we emigrated in 1948) will take a few years. It is up to the authorities in Bucharest to make the decision but I submitted all the paperwork to the Embassy here in London and they seemed to think it would all work out while refusing to make any commitment. However there is such a back log of applications that it will take at least that long – possibly even longer now that more Ukrainians want to take up Romanian citizenship and may well have the requisite ancestry. Probably you would not qualify for Austrian citizenship (if I read the paperwork correctly) and I am sure you have done the right thing getting German citizenship. Best wishes Karin From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Alan Gavurin Sent: 10 December 2022 08:58 To: Benjamin Grilj <[email protected]> Cc: Jim Wald <[email protected]>; [email protected] Subject: Re: [czernowitz-l] No longer verboten: Descendants of Holocaust survivors seek Austrian citizenship | The Times of Israel Thanks for sharing this interesting article. 2 years ago my brother and I looked into getting our citizenship from either Germany or Austria. Actually we also looked at Romania as well. My grandparents were born in parts of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. My grandpa in Wiznitz and my grandma in Kolomyya (both now Ukraine) in 1908 and 1911 respectively. They came to Germany 1930 where my mother was born. In the end getting German citizenship proved to be fairly straightforward once the law changed in summer 2021. (Before that point, even though my mother was born in Germany, we would not have qualified because my grandparents never became German citizens. Actually they weren’t ever allowed to become German citizens and this was what was changed in the new law.) However, both of my grandparents were citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire so I was always interested in whether this qualified me for Australian citizenship. The process always looked more complicated and there were rumours that the Austrians were less “generous“ in the decisions that they made. I would love to know anyone with similar family circumstances to mine was able to get Austrian citizenship through their grandparents being born in part of the full Austro-Hungarian Empire. Alan On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 at 21:31, Benjamin Grilj <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Dear Jim, thanks for sharing the text. But- and this was a broad discussion in AT before - doublecitizenship for descendants of the NS was never a topic in the law of 2019. it was always allowed. Best, Benjamin send by my iPhone > Am 09.12.2022 um 19:23 schrieb Jim Wald > <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>: > > No longer verboten: Descendants of Holocaust survivors seek Austrian > citizenship; After a revision of Austrian citizenship laws, candidates don’t > need to give up their native passports. Read about Giuliana Schnitzler, Julie > Bronder and Amy Feineman’s paths there > > By RAQUEL G. FROHLICH > 8 December 2022, 6:52 pm > > Text and photos | The Times of Israel > https://www.timesofisrael.com/no-longer-verboten-descendants-of-holocaust-survivors-seek-austrian-citizenship/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2022-12-09&utm_medium=email > > > https://www.timesofisrael.com/no-longer-verboten-descendants-of-holocaust-survivors-seek-austrian-citizenship/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition > > ******************************************************************************* > This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of > Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed > in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not > necessarily > the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members > or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has an > associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a > searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Beginning in 2021, > archived messages can be found at: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To send mail to the list, address it to > <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>. > > To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at > https://it.cornell.edu/lyris/leave-e-lists-lyris > > To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to: > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************************* This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Beginning in 2021, archived messages can be found at: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To send mail to the list, address it to <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>. To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at https://it.cornell.edu/lyris/leave-e-lists-lyris To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Alan Gavurin (m) 07973 424357 ________________________________ ________________________________ This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Beginning in 2021, archived messages can be found at: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To send mail to the list, address it to <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>. To remove your address from this e-list follow these directions<https://it.cornell.edu/lyris/leave-e-lists-lyris>. To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> ________________________________ ******************************************************************************* This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Beginning in 2021, archived messages can be found at: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To send mail to the list, address it to <[email protected]>. To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at https://it.cornell.edu/lyris/leave-e-lists-lyris To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
