“Restoration of Citizenship” for those excluded from Collective Naturalization due to ethnicity

I don’t think that this has been explicitly discussed before on this subreddit. When the Nazi regime annexed territories and “Collectively Naturalized” the ethnic Germans in those areaa, Jews were of course excluded.

The 2021 amendment to the Nationality Act (Section 15), allows the descendants of those German-speaking Jews who were excluded from “Collective Naturalization” to be naturalized.

This is a very far-reaching change. It’s fairly well-known that Collective Naturalization took place in the Sudetenland (Czech Republic). But, it also took place in Bukovina, which straddles the present border of Ukraine and Romania.

Bukovina was part of the Austrian Empire, and we redditors would likely advise anyone whose ancestor came from that region that Austrian citizenship was certainly lost, end of story.

I think that it would surprise many that German citizenship is a possibility for the descendants of Jews from that region.

It would be interesting to see a comprehensive list of all eligible Collective Naturalization events.

References:

See item B.2 on this website about the 2021 amendment to Section 15: [https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/03-Citizenship/-/2479490](https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/03-Citizenship/-/2479490)

See the paragraph titled “Easier Naturalization….” on this webpage of the Arolsen Archives: [https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/citizenship-for-victims-of-nazi-persecution/](https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/citizenship-for-victims-of-nazi-persecution/)