My grandmother was a German Jew who immigrated to Australia after spending WW2 hiding on a farm.
I’d been tossing around the idea of applying for a German passport to make travel in Europe easier.
Would I have an in because of my Grandma and residual guilt over the holocaust or would it not enter into the equation since she became an Australian?
This is all purely hypothetical by the way, since when I brought it up with my mum a while ago she informed me that if I attempted it my gramma would not only roll over in her grave, she’d rise up and throttle me. I’m still curious if it would have worked, though.
Why don’t you call the German embassy? That’s the best way to get accurate information. Honestly, I wouldn’t rely on an internet board (even this one) concerning such questions.
Ordinarily I’d go with that but like I said, it’s become hypothetical, so I’m asking out of curiosity more than anything else.
Ring the German consulate who are probably in Canberra.
You never know what you might be entitled to. I was apparently entitled to a Yugoslave passport as the daughter of an ethnic Hungarian refugee. Not one I wanted to collect on though.
I guess your chances are not bad. Although some modernization has been made, Germany is still having totally obsolete citizenship legislation, stating that you have to descend from Germans in order to be German (which is why there are thousands of Namibians, descending from German settlers, who have never been to Germany but hold a German passport, while thousands of children who were born in Germany are no German citizens because their parents aren’t).
Might depend on whether grandmother’s children (your father or mother) remained German citizens or not. If yes, I guess you’ll get the passport without any complications, if no, things might get a bit more difficult, but it’s worth a try.
So how far back would the German citizen ancesters be able to go? My great-grandparents were the first to come over here, and my grandparents were born here. Also, I’m German on my mother’s side, but Polish/Slovak on my father’s side. Would being half-German, so to speak, in addition to being in America for 3 generations, still technically qualify me for it, or is it too far removed (this is for curiousity’s sake, because now it’s piqued)?