Illegitimate children of Jews evicted by Nazis are German citizens: Court

Berlin, June 17

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A US woman born to a Jewish father stripped of his German citizenship by the Nazis in 1938 cannot be denied naturalisation for being an illegitimate child, Germany’s Constitutional Court has ruled.

The court found local courts had discriminated against the woman, born in 1967 in the US to a Jewish father and a US mother, who were unmarried.

Article 116 (2) of Germany’s constitution – known as the Basic Law – states that Germans who between 1933 and 1945 were stripped of their citizenship on political, racial or religious grounds and their descendents can have their citizenship back.

The court ruling, dated May 20 and made public on Wednesday, stated that children born out of wedlock to former German citizens are equally entitled to citizenship.

The decision opens the door for descendants of German Jews born outside marriages to become German citizens.

“If a law mandates the state to grant citizenship, this right must be fulfilled without discrimination against illegitimate children,” the court said.

Jewish campaigners said it was a “momentous judgment”. – Reuters