Descendants of German Jews who fled the Nazis are seeking German citizenship under amid widespread dismay among Jews at last month's British vote to leave the EU, according to the Independent.
The Jewish descendants are looking to take advantage of the German legal principle of "restored citizenship", which stipulates that "former German citizens who between January 30, 1933 and May 8, 1945 were deprived of their citizenship on political, racial, or religious grounds, and their descendants, shall, on application, have their citizenship restored".
British Jews voted overwhelmingly to stay in the UK by a two to one margin, according to polls.
A survey carried out by the Jewish Chronicle showed that 59 per cent of those questioned were unhappy with the referendum result, compared to 28.3 per cent who were satisfied. Meanwhile, more than a third of British Jews feel less safe as a result of the Brexit vote.
The Independent reported that the German embassy in London has been receiving rising numbers of requests for information on citizenship from refugees' descendants living in Britain.
Rachel Houseman, a banker who lives in north-west London, told the Independent: "My family and I are...shocked by the rise in racism. I don't think, as Jews, we'll be immune from this at all. A couple I know were abused in the street in London last week for speaking in Dutch, the husband just happened to be Jewish. That was anti-foreign, rather than anti-semitic, but it shows the way things are going. We have no idea what's going to happen with visas and Europe. We can't get assurances from the politicians on this because they don't know themselves, it's a real mess. Our family came here from Hamburg, we lost relations in the holocaust. We have relations in Germany, so we are going to look at the German option. There's no question of going back to the German version of our name or anything. I think we'll be able to keep dual-nationality."
Jonathan, a 30-year-old Israeli who lives in Swansea and did not want his surname used, told the German broadcast channel Deutsche Welle that xenophobia is on the rise. "There's a feeling that xenophobia has suddenly been legitimized by this vote" he said. You do hear of incidents. I get this feeling that I'm lucky because I am white, so you can only really tell I am not from here when I start talking and you hear my foreign accent. I think the majority of 'leave' voters aren't racists, but racists will have seen this vote as a confirmation they are the majority."
Citizens for Europe, based in Berlin, has established a 'legal clinic' to advise people on requirements for German citizenship. Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice chancellor has suggested that young Britons, who largely voted to remain in the EU, should be offered German citizenship but officials say this is "just an idea". Normally, a European citizen would need to have one parent who is German to achieve citizenship.
