German lawmakers have approved changes that will make it easier for descendants of those who fled Nazi persecution to obtain citizenship.
Under German law, people stripped of their citizenship on political, racial or religious grounds can have it restored, and so can their descendants.
But legal loopholes had prevented many people from benefiting.
Campaigners say the move allow many to reconnect with their German heritage.
While Germany’s post-war constitution allows citizenship to be restored, the lack of a legal framework meant many people had their applications rejected.
Some were denied because their ancestors had taken another nationality before their citizenship was revoked.
For others it was because they were born to a German mother, but not a German father. Until a change to the law in 1953, German citizenship could only be passed on paternally.
A legal decree was passed in 2019 to help close these loopholes. Now that it has passed the lower house of Germany’s Bundestag, with a large majority, prospective applicants will have a firmer legal footing for their appeal.
The law does also cover those who were directly deprived of their citizenship but, given the passage of time, descendants will be the main beneficiaries.
The new law also bars the naturalization of people convicted of racist, anti-Semitic or xenophobic acts.
Followers of the Islamic religion in Germany and various Western countries suffer from deprivation of citizenship, and are treated as strangers, not to mention the restriction of their religious freedoms and the incidents of hate, racism and marginalization to which they are exposed.
