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British Jews take German path to Europe after Brexit

British nationals of Jewish descent, whose relatives fled Nazi-occupied Europe, are taking the difficult decision to restore the citizenship stripped from them by the Third Reich as Brexit looms. We spoke to those affected.

Published: 15 January 2019 09:57 CET
British Jews take German path to Europe after Brexit
Some British nationals of Jewish heritage are restoring German citizenship. Photo: DPA

Two of British opera singer Simon Wallfisch's great-grandparents were shot in mass graves by the Nazis and another died in a concentration camp.

So it was with pangs of guilt and triumphant defiance that Wallfisch took on German citizenship once his country decided to leave the European Union after 46 years.

“I've had to use a major family tragedy to shore up some security for my future and my family's future,” Wallfisch, who is also a cellist, told AFP while taking a break from a protest performance of the European anthem outside the British parliament as MPs prepare for a historic vote on Brexit later on Tuesday.

“Of course there are mixed emotions,” the 36-year-old father of two said.

Rising tide 

About 70,000 Jews fled Nazi-occupied Europe to Britain in the harrowing years preceding World War II.

A rising tide of their children and grandchildren are now overcoming misgivings and using a clause of the German constitution to restore the citizenship stripped from them by the Third Reich.

Official Berlin figures show only 43 Britons applying for German passports in 2015 under the special exception for victims of the Holocaust and their descendants.

That number jumped to 684 when Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016. It grew again to 1,667 last year and reached 1,229 in the first nine months of 2018 as more and more people sought ways to preserve their EU right to work and travel freely across the bloc's 27 states.

Their decisions reflect the success of Germany's tortuous coming-to-terms with its history – and the anguish many Britons feel at their island nation's isolationist turn.

“On the one hand, I feel like I'm sort of a traitor to my great-grandparents,” Wallfisch said after a moment's reflection.

“On the other, I feel there's a triumph here. Me becoming German and remaining a European citizen, which I always believed I was, is a victory over the nationalists, the Nazis.”

SEE ALSO: How Brexit and the fight for rights united Britons across Europe

Identity crisis

Britain's planned March 29th departure from the European project was decided in a bitterly fought referendum that gave voice to the disaffected and those feeling abandoned by the ruling elite.

It also fed into social schisms that saw the number of anti-Semitic incidents and other hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales rise from 52,465 in 2014-15 to 80,393 in 2016-17.

Yet some taking the plunge and adopting a dual German nationality come from non-religious families that slowly shed their Jewish identities as they assimilated in the mostly Christian kingdom.

Senior Guardian newspaper reporter Amelia Hill said she was brought up in a secular household and decided to reclaim her German roots while watching “dumbstruck” as the referendum results rolled in on TV.

“I really enjoyed saying to people: I am making my family German,” she recalled.

“But when they accepted me and I had to go to pick it up with my children and my husband, I delayed that process, that last step for a long time because I suddenly thought: this isn't me, who actually am I, this just must be something I've done that is nuts.”

This identity crisis made Hill realise that she was a European Londoner at heart.

“Why would I want my children to not be able to live lives as Europeans?” she asked. “I refuse to let my identity and my children's identity be utterly changed by a minority” of the total population who voted to leave.

Overcoming history 

Some British Jews have had a harder time looking past history.

House of Lords peer Julia Neuberger – a Jewish community leader who is also a London synagogue rabbi — wrote in The Times that her mother “would neither visit Germany nor buy German things” after coming to England in 1937.

Yet Neuberger felt comfortable enough to herself try to reclaim her heritage when Brexit was voted through. She was denied on a technicality.

Popular former TV crime show presenter Nick Ross said he also got his passport “for the sake of saying something to Germany” in recognition of its struggle to overcome the past.

His decision pre-dated the referendum and he refused to blame fellow Britons too harshly for choosing a course with which he so profoundly disagreed.

Ross saw it as a natural product of the 2008-2009 global recession that eventually swept populists to power in Europe and Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.

“There was a rebellion against all these people who were all so smug, who still seemed to be doing very well for themselves,” said Ross.

But he said he did not expect ever to leave London because “I am actually fiercely patriotically British”.

“This is still by anyone's standards a very liberal society,” said Ross. “And as long as it remains that, I am going to do all I can to support that.”

By Dmitry Zaks

Member comments

  1. False argument. The rise in anti-semitism in the UK has nothing to do with the UK leaving the EU. The Labour Party – rife with anti-semitism – and the rise in the number of muslims are the reasons. Look at the French example.

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BREXIT

OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

The EU has drawn up plans to make it easier for non-EU citizens to gain longterm EU residency so they can move more easily around the bloc, but Italy-based citizens' rights campaigner Clarissa Killwick says Brits who moved to the EU before Brexit are already losing out.

Published: 8 December 2023 14:34 CET
OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

With all the talk about the EU long-term residency permit and the proposed improvements there is no mention that UK citizens who are Withdrawal Agreement “beneficiaries” are currently being left out in the cold.

The European Commission has stated that we can hold multiple statuses including the EU long-term permit (Under a little-known EU law, third-country nationals can in theory acquire EU-wide long-term resident status if they have lived ‘legally’ in an EU country for at least five years) but in reality it is just not happening.

This effectively leaves Brits locked into their host countries while other third country nationals can enjoy some mobility rights. As yet, in Italy, it is literally a question of the computer saying no if someone tries to apply.

The lack of access to the EU long-term permit to pre-Brexit Brits is an EU-wide issue and has been flagged up to the European Commission but progress is very slow.

READ ALSO: EU government settle on rules for how non-EU citizens could move around Europe

My guess is that few UK nationals who already have permanent residency status under the Withdrawal Agreement are even aware of the extra mobility rights they could have with the EU long-term residency permit – or do not even realise they are two different things.

Perhaps there won’t be very large numbers clamouring for it but it is nothing short of discrimination not to make it accessible to British people who’ve built their lives in the EU.

They may have lost their status as EU citizens but nothing has changed concerning the contributions they make, both economically and socially.

An example of how Withdrawal Agreement Brits in Italy are losing out

My son, who has lived almost his whole life here, wanted to study in the Netherlands to improve his employment prospects.

Dutch universities grant home fees rather than international fees to holders of an EU long-term permit. The difference in fees for a Master’s, for example, is an eye-watering €18,000. He went through the application process, collecting the requisite documents, making the payments and waited many months for an appointment at the “questura”, (local immigration office).

On the day, it took some persuading before they agreed he should be able to apply but then the whole thing was stymied because the national computer system would not accept a UK national. I am in no doubt, incidentally, that had he been successful he would have had to hand in his WA  “carta di soggiorno”.

This was back in February 2022 and nothing has budged since then. In the meantime, it is a question of pay up or give up for any students in the same boat as my son. There is, in fact, a very high take up of the EU long-term permit in Italy so my son’s non-EU contemporaries do not face this barrier.

Long-term permit: The EU’s plan to make freedom of movement easier for non- EU nationals 

Completing his studies was stalled by a year until finally his Italian citizenship came through after waiting over 5 years.  I also meet working adults in Italy with the EU long-term permit who use it for work purposes, such as in Belgium and Germany, and for family reunification.  

Withdrawal agreement card should double up as EU long-term residency permit

A statement that Withdrawal Agreement beneficiaries should be able to hold multiple statuses is not that easy to find. You have to scroll quite far down the page on the European Commission’s website to find a link to an explanatory document. It has been languishing there since March 2022 but so far not proved very useful.

It has been pointed out to the Commission that the document needs to be multilingual not just in English and “branded” as an official communication from the Commission so it can be used as a stand-alone. But having an official document you can wave at the immigration authorities is going to get you nowhere if Member State governments haven’t acknowledged that WA beneficiaries can hold multiple statuses and issue clear guidance and make sure systems are modified accordingly.

I can appreciate this is no mean feat in countries where they do not usually allow multiple statuses or, even if they do, issue more than one residency card. Of course, other statuses we should be able to hold are not confined to EU long-term residency, they should include the EU Blue Card, dual nationality, family member of an EU citizen…

Personally, I do think people should be up in arms about this. The UK and EU negotiated an agreement which not only removed our freedom of movement as EU citizens, it also failed to automatically give us equal mobility rights to other third country nationals. We are now neither one thing nor the other.

It would seem the only favour the Withdrawal Agreement did us was we didn’t have to go out and come back in again! Brits who follow us, fortunate enough to get a visa, may well pip us at the post being able to apply for EU long-term residency as clearly defined non-EU citizens.

I have been bringing this issue to the attention of the embassy in Rome, FCDO and the European Commission for three years now. I hope we will see some movement soon.

Finally, there should be no dragging of heels assuming we will all take citizenship of our host countries. Actually, we shouldn’t have to, my son was fortunate, even though it took a long time. Others may not meet the requirements or wish to give up their UK citizenship in countries which do not permit dual nationality.  

Bureaucratic challenges may seem almost insurmountable but why not simply allow our Withdrawal Agreement permanent card to double up as the EU long-term residency permit.

Clarissa Killwick,

Since 2016, Clarissa has been a citizens’ rights campaigner and advocate with the pan-European group, Brexpats – Hear Our Voice.
She is co-founder and co-admin of the FB group in Italy, Beyond Brexit – UK citizens in Italy.

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