{"id":1115762,"date":"2026-07-28T08:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115762\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:39:22","slug":"from-holocaust-descendants-to-dual-citizens-israelis-return-to-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115762\/","title":{"rendered":"From Holocaust descendants to dual citizens: Israelis return to Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

A record number of Israelis are reclaiming the German citizenship<\/a> that was taken from their families during the Holocaust. What used to be a backup plan or a painful memory has now become a key source of security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been very hard for me since October 7, and it only got worse\u2026 I needed a break from Israel,\u201d said Bary Weisberg, an Israeli-German who works in the tech industry in Munich as a development manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say that when we got the passports for my children, it was with the mindset of, \u2018Okay, we need to do this quickly because we are already leaving, so we need this insurance certificate for escape.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Yossi Harpaz, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Tel Aviv University, said what used to be an emotional or political choice has now become a practical backup plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand for insurance certificates [i.e., a second passport] definitely exists, and buying them likely grants a person some peace of mind and a sense of security. However, we have seen an upward trend in recent years, which has accelerated since 2023 due to the constitutional crisis and the war,\u201d said Harpaz, an expert on dual citizenship.<\/p>\n

\"EightyEighty years after her grandparents fled Nazi Germany for Israel, Galit Bary Weisberg, a mother of three moved to Munich in September 2025 as a German citizen. (credit: Courtesy)A passport surge<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the German embassy in Israel<\/a>, 6,756 Israelis became German citizens in 2025 alone, double the number from 2021, making the embassy in Israel the biggest German passport office outside of Europe. Germany\u2019s Federal Ministry of the Interior shared numbers showing that the Hamas attacks and the ongoing wars in the Middle East caused applications to jump.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of Israeli-Jews of German descent are eligible for naturalization as derived from Article 116(2) of Germany\u2019s Basic Law. This law said that Germans and their descendants who were stripped of their citizenship during the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945<\/a> have the right to have it restored.<\/p>\n

These numbers were also helped by a major change in German law. In June 2024, Germany eased the naturalization process for foreigners and allowed them to keep their original passports.<\/p>\n

Tomer Amit, 31, a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry, moved to Munich from Ganei Hadar, near Rehovot, in January.<\/p>\n

For him, the passport is a ticket to long-term career opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a good chance that I will stay here since I have the citizenship and the language,\u201d shares Amit, an Israeli-German. Amit chose to do his research in Germany instead of another country because he already has German citizenship.<\/p>\n

A 2025 article in The Guardian reported that Germany is now home to the largest Israeli diaspora in Europe, with an estimated population of 24,000.<\/p>\n

But some people worry that holding two passports makes a person seem less loyal to their home country.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the surface, it seems perfectly logical that dual citizens might be less patriotic or loyal than those with a single citizenship,\u201d said Harpaz.<\/p>\n

\"TomerTomer Amit, who moved to Munich in January, is among a record number of Israelis reclaiming the German citizenship that was taken from their families during the Holocaust. (credit: Courtesy)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rationale is that someone with only one citizenship has no choice but to stay, while a dual citizen can leave whenever they want. But I am not familiar with any research that has actually proven this. It remains an open question.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Germany used to be viewed strictly through the lens of historical trauma, attitudes are shifting. A 2024 Israel Hayom article showed that 75% of Israelis believe that there is a \u201cdifferent Germany\u201d today, compared to just 48% who believed in that statement in 1991.<\/p>\n

\u2018An immigrant like any other\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the law makes getting a passport relatively simple, Harpaz said that the emotional choice is much harder, often causing disagreements between generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one hand, it can be viewed as disgraceful, unpatriotic, and undignified to go and request citizenship \u2013 or even to reside \u2013 in a country where I and my parents were persecuted,\u201d Harpaz explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut on the other hand, just as previous generations survived because they had the right piece of paper at the right time \u2013 like a certificate to move to British Palestine \u2013 dual citizens argue that they need to stay sharp and read the writing on the wall in time, just like the previous generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amit\u2019s own family history highlights this clash between generations. He explains that his parents decided to become Germans in secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me to come along and not to talk about it with my family,\u201d Amit recalls, \u201cbecause they were doing it without my grandfather knowing, as he was deeply ashamed of his German roots.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Bary Weisberg, her family had the exact opposite reaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin my family, it was never an issue,\u201d said Bary Weisberg, over a videoconference call. \u201cJust recently, during one of her visits, my mother mentioned that hearing the children speak German with a German accent actually brings back pleasant memories of her parents, because they spoke German.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YossiYossi Harpaz, a Senior Lecturer at Tel Aviv University, said what used to be an emotional or political choice has now become a practical backup plan for many Israelis with German citizenship. (credit: Courtesy)<\/p>\n

While a restored passport eliminates legal hurdles, it cannot erase the challenges of cultural displacement. The document grants entry, but not immediate integration.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective, I am an immigrant like any other,\u201d said Bary Weisberg, who got her German passport when she was a child. \u201cIt happened a few times that I was asked for my passport, and then I showed the German passport, and then the people were confused\u2026 so I explained how I got the passport, and why I don\u2019t speak German.\u201d<\/p>\n

This mass adoption of dual citizenship ultimately reshapes national identity. A German passport acts as an administrative key, but true belonging and assimilation require physical presence and time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntegrating into German society can definitely happen, but it requires living in the country,\u201d explains Harpaz, who has written extensively about the strategic value of dual passports. \u201cIf I have a German passport and now I\u2019ve lived in Germany for 10 years, without a doubt my identity will change and I will start saying, \u2018I\u2019m half-half.\u2019 The passport itself doesn\u2019t change much; what matters is living in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the next generation, this integration is already being fast-tracked through language and education, shifting away from historical stigmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going at it full power, mostly because I don\u2019t know what will happen in the future, but I definitely want to learn German,\u201d said Bary Weisberg, 38. \u201cMy kids already speak fluent German. We chose to put them in German schools and kindergartens.\u201d<\/p>\n

This forward-looking approach stands in stark contrast to the generational shame that previously surrounded German roots. When asked if he ever envisions a future where he introduces himself as being from Germany, Amit smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. I see it, and I hope so.\u201d\u25a0<\/p>\n

This report was written as part of the \u2018Art of Journalism\u2019 workshop at the School of Communication, Reichman University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A record number of Israelis are reclaiming the German citizenship that was taken from their families during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1115763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[48480,58569,2000,299,1824,119606,143062,153605,260058,42048],"class_list":["post-1115762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-citizenship","tag-diaspora-jews","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany","tag-germany-and-israel","tag-israelis","tag-jerusalem-report","tag-jews-in-germany","tag-passport"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116996708679897679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}