Interest has increased since Germany expanded its citizenship regulations to include more relatives of Jews who escaped Nazi persecution. Some applicants claim to deeper motivations, while others highlight more pragmatic advantages like simpler travel throughout the EU.
A growing number of American Jews whose families fled Nazi Germany can attest to this. In an effort to recover their lost family heritage, some people are now applying for German citizenship. However, a lot of people also claim that they are trying to find a “Plan B” in light of the US political situation becoming more unpredictable.
According to Eric Podietz, whose mother fled Germany when she was a young girl in the late 1930s, the past is becoming more and more significant.
“This rise of authoritarianism just parallels the rise of Hitler,” stated Podietz, a Philadelphia-based retired IT expert. “the suppression of free expression and the jeopardization of educational institutions. There are the signs. It’s taking place. It’s frightening.
After the Nazis took power, his mother, who was born in 1926, and her family left. Podietz claimed that even as an adult, she was still dedicated to finding out what happened to family members and property that had been left behind, traveling to Germany several times and even persuading local governments to build monuments honoring the Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
As Podietz noted, “She was a force to be reckoned with,”
Even though their grandfather disapproved of everything German, including speaking German and even driving a German automobile, Podietz and his sister Eva-Lynn recognize the importance of reestablishing ties to their heritage, particularly in light of the increasingly polarizing political rhetoric in the United States.
“I just thought, well, it really would be good to have this passport,” according to New York City social worker Eva-Lynn Podietz, who is now retired. “Almost usually, Jews are exiled. Perhaps that is simply a characteristic of being Jewish.
Although neither Eva-Lynn Podietz nor Eric Podietz intend to relocate right away, they both concur that the political discourse in the United States is uncannily similar to the nation their family previously fled to escape.
More applications slow the citizenship process
According to David Young, an attorney in New York who owns the Becoming German consultancy, his company has assisted roughly 1,500 individuals in navigating the procedure. He claims that the number of applications who are really thinking about moving to Germany or another EU nation has significantly increased. It is allowed for citizens of any EU member state to live in another EU nation.
“In the past, most people just wanted the passport as an option,” he stated. “Now it’s people really concretely thinking about moving.”
According to Young, the documentation that used to take German bureaucrats a few months to process is now taking years to get authorized because so many more individuals are applying now.
Among those who have submitted their German citizenship documents is Joe Sacks. Earlier this year, the Washington, D.C., high school science teacher and his family submitted an application.
He remarked, “It is a pretty weird thing,” “On the German form, you select ‘Yes, I’m Jewish,’ and submit it to the German authorities. It’s crazy.
However, the application process itself was also moving, Sacks noted.
“That is unquestionably the tale of the Jewish nomads. What are the situations in which you support or oppose the proposal? He said, “It’s always seemed very, very tenuous.”
Sacks said having the option provides him piece of mind during turbulent political times, even if he, his wife, and their kids do not currently have any plans to leave the United States for Germany.
Since his wife works for the federal government, the family’s desire to increase their alternatives has become even more urgent given the turmoil in the government workforce brought on by the Trump Administration’s government reorganization.
Judy Spring, a clinical psychologist in suburban Philadelphia, can relate to that sentiment. In the years preceding World War II, her family escaped Germany for the United States, and her mother frequently emphasized the value of having a backup plan and always knowing where her passport was.
“It just kind of feels like history is repeating itself here,” Spring stated. “And often I think, ‘What would my mother do if she were alive now?'”
Ironically, Spring suggested the remedy might be found in the nation her family once fled, as political rhetoric heats up and antisemitism increases.
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