Austria has granted citizenship to over 40,000 descendants of Holocaust victims

Over 40 thousand people, mainly from Israel, received Austrian citizenship thanks to legal changes in September 2020 allowing descendants of Austrian Holocaust victims to apply for it, said Hannah Lessing, secretary general of the Austrian National Fund for Victims of Nazism.

– This is a beautiful testimony of trust, considering such a short time – said Lessing at a press conference in Vienna.

According to the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than half of those who obtained citizenship thanks to the new regulations (51%) came from Israeland the next places were taken by residents United States (22%) i Great Britain (13%).

For Austrian citizenship Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Jews and victims of Nazism can now applywho left Austria due to persecution by the Nazi regime. Previously, only Holocaust survivors had this right.

Austria issues its passports to descendants of Holocaust victims without requiring them to reside on its territory or renounce their previous citizenship, which means special treatment, as Vienna does not, in principle, allow dual citizenship.

As the AFP agency emphasized, it was thanks to the Jews that Vienna became an important artistic center in Europe at the end of the 19th century, because most of the intellectuals who made the capital of Austria famous came from the assimilated Jewish bourgeoisie and middle class.

Before Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, 200,000 people lived in this country. citizens of Jewish origin. Over 65 thousand of them died during the Holocaust.

Tuesday marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the German extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. January 27 is celebrated every year as the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust – the genocide of the Jews organized by Nazi Germany during World War II. Approximately 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, of which nearly a million were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which became a symbol of this crime. (PAP)

mw/adj/