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Courtesy Suzanne Houchin
Suzanne Houchin, when she was 8 years old, with her grandfather, Bruno Gumpert. Suzanne now has a German passport, even though her grandfather was stripped of his German citizenship under the Nuremberg laws during the Nazi era.
Tens of thousands of Jews are choosing to become German citizens.
Unreal?
It’s happening.
A study at Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan University study found 100,000 Israelis have German passports.
During the Nazi era, the 1935 Nuremberg racial laws stripped Jews of German citizenship. But since May 1949, German law gives Jews who fled Nazi Germany the right to German citizenship, including all their descendants.
“This is the largest group of German passport holders in the world outside Germany,” said Emmanuel Nachshon, Deputy Ambassador at the Israeli embassy in Berlin.
There are an estimated 15,000 Israelis in Berlin, drawn there to work, study and enjoy Berlin’s intellectual life and cheap rents. “It’s the single most interesting and dynamic city certainly in Europe and perhaps in the world,” said Nachshon.
Israelis comfortable in Germany
Maya Nathan agrees. The 33-year-old Israeli student with a German passport said “I fell in love with Berlin, its freedom, its great space.”
Nathan is not uncomfortable about living in the country responsible for the Holocaust. “Our family was never anti-German,” she said, adding that she knows Israelis who won’t come to Germany.
Courtesy Nadav Gablinger / Courtesy Nadav Gablinger
Nadav Gablinger, an Israeli tour guide who lives and works in Berlin.
Nathan, who has been in Germany for two and a half years, is getting a neuropsychology degree at the University of Magdeburg. She plans to remain in Germany.
Nadav Gablinger, 39, is a tour guide who has lived in Berlin for 11 years. An Israeli with German citizenship, he and his Israeli wife have two children in German schools.
Noting that Holocaust history is everywhere in Berlin, Gablinger says that present-day Germany is a very safe place for Jews.
“Today I can say as a Jew, Germany is the safest place in the world,” he says, “Safer than in Israel.”
Nachshon speculated that many Israelis hold second passports in case things go wrong in Israel.
American granddaughter of Holocaust victims: ‘We made it back’
Increasing numbers of American Jews are also seeking German citizenship.
According to German government figures, 3,663 Americans, mostly Jews, acquired German citizenship between 2003 and 2010.
German citizenship allows American Jews not only to live and work in Europe, but also access to a free university education. So it could be that some seek German citizenship so they can live and work elsewhere in Europe.
“Berlin is becoming one of the most exciting capital cities in Europe, and it exerts a pull,” said Deidre Berger, director of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin. “Many of the new Jewish citizens say they have some history in Germany and they want to discover it.”
Suzanne Houchin, a 50-year-old photographer from Los Angeles, is one of them. She and 10 other family members received German passports two years ago.
Courtesy Of Suzanne Houchin
Bruno and Hedwig Gumpert, Suzanne Houchin's grandparents, seen in 1939 shortly before they fled Nazi Germany.
Houchin’s grandparents, Bruno and Hedwig Gumpert, who owned a department store in the city center, fled Berlin in 1939.
“My grandparents would talk about their wonderful childhood in Berlin and how much they loved Germany,” she said in a telephone interview. “They were our bedrock and they meant the world to us.”
Explaining her feelings about becoming a naturalized German, Houchin said: “It felt like this was a way of honoring them, getting back something that was stolen from them.” She tearfully added, “Mein opa (my grandfather), we made it back to the land that you loved so much. This makes my heart happy.”
Dr. Ruth: ‘Hitler did not want me to have children’… now they can become citizens
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the 83-year-old renowned sex therapist, born in Frankfurt, is also proud of her German citizenship, acquired in September 2007.
When she was 10 years old, Westheimer’s parents put her on one of the last trains to a children’s sanctuary in Switzerland. After the war, she learned her family had been killed.
“Hitler did not want me to have children, or grandchildren,” she said in a telephone interview. “Now that I have a German passport, my grandchildren can study anywhere in Europe.”
But Edward Levy, 30, a naturalized German from Chicago, is wary. “Sometimes I wonder what the older generation [of Germans] really thinks,” he said. “If they knew I was Jewish and my grandparents were Jewish.”
Seattle-born Jordan Selig, 25, relishes her new life in the gritty Kreutzberg district of Berlin. A Columbia University graduate, she buys apartments to renovate as rentals. Her grandparents fled the Nazis on the trans-Siberian railroad to China. She said they boarded the last passenger ship to leave for the United States before war broke out.
“It’s so much more comfortable and international to live here than in most big cities,” she observed.
As time passes, gets easier
“Berlin is the place to be for young people,” said Nirit Bialer, a 33-year-old Israeli and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. “There’s a lot of space here, and there is freedom and acceptance of artistic innovation. Individuality is strong here. In Israel, the collective is much stronger.”
Bialer runs Projekt Habait, a German-Israeli social program to inform Germans about Israeli culture. “Many of the Israelis here are engaged in the art scene and some are known here. However, there is a big hunger among Germans to learn about us.”
The Holocaust remains an open wound for many Jews. But Berger, from the American Jewish Committee in Berlin, believes the wound will heal.
“I think it’s getting easier for third and fourth generation Americans with German roots to look at Germany in a more open-minded way as the distance from the Holocaust grows.”
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Absolutely wonderful. During the time of the Nazis, 50% of the doctors in Germany were Jewish. Almost all died in the camps. Only 500,000 Jews in Germany at the time but they contributed much more to German society than they took. My guess is that the new Jews in Germany will do the same. All seem to be getting educations and trying to contribute to their new homeland. They may turn out to be more German than the Germans.
Not on a bet, most Holocaust Survivor's kin want to claim German Citizenship.
It only says that about 4,000 Jews have done this. Probably Jews who had no direct connection to this Epic Tragedy.
If anyone has relatives or descendants from the Holocaust, no one wants this piece of crap paper--The Germans stood by, while the Nazi's cremated, gassed, used Concentration Camps to kill this Religious group of people. Most knew nothing about their own Judaism, because of the Nazi's..
I know no one who wants to go back to Germany, only as an offering to see where they were born, but the descendants have not had a direct experience while the Holocaust happened. Some younger Jews know nothing about it----no teachings in History Classes on this subject.
This was a hideous period of time---the US ignored what happened, because of communication. Then World War II---many survivors were turned away from the US, and sent to other countries to be killed, others making a life in China, Hungary, Slavic Countries, and Europe..
This Article is extremely deceptive in it's title, and content.
Not all of the Nazi's were evil. The movie "Schnieder's List" is based on a real story. Schnieder used to be a Nazi, then he realized the error of his ways. Then he started helping out the Jews.
that was shindlers list if im not mistaken and yes that was a very good movie
Random:
Are you talking about Steven Speilberg's, "Schindler's List"; excellent movie.
Very profound; good lesson for all who have not believed or were exposed to this Slaughter, including 11,000,000 German people; not all Jews, Catholics, the disabled, or anyone who did not fit the person's outer look of being blond, blue eyed profile. Hitler wanted a complete Aryan Race Country, along with other European countries.
Yeah, sorry about that. I get my Schindler's and Schnieder's mixed up.
Marchant, not all of the people who take advantage of German citizenship are staying in Germany. German citizenship also gives them the legal right to live and work in other countries withing the EU as well, such as the UK, France, Spain, Greece, etc. So some of these people will likely be going to some of those other countries.
Germany has been doing just fine without contributions from Jews. Germany is the most successful country in all of Europe. Germany citizens are loyal to Germany, rather than to Israel.
In America, we have Jewish people in high places and in the media trying to push us into more wars for Israel. Wars which have cost our nation trillions of dollas and made us new enemies across the globe.
Zionist warmongers like Ken Adelman and the Zionist Washington Post pushed the war in
an editorial titled, “Cakewalk in Iraq.” Jewish supremacists Richard Perle and
Paul Wolfowitz told you that Iraq would “Welcome us as liberators.” Iraq became
the longest war in American history. Here is a report from USA Today: “Pentagon
officials estimated for the first time Wednesday that up to 360,000 Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans may have suffered traumatic brain injuries.” Now that’s
not counting tens of thousands who have suffered maiming, amputations, or death
in this war based on lies.
America is now in Afghanistan, in order to make it secure enough to run a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Afghganistan to Pakiistan and on to India to sell Israeli owned gas. This is the real reason we are in Afghanistan losing men and treasure. American parents are losing their children in order to make Israel richer than they are now.
Oil companies proposed the pipeline in 1995, but
it dropped off their agenda after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan the
following year. The plan was revived after the United States-led invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001, and received backing from the Asian Development Bank,
which financed feasibility studies.
Iran can
sell gas to India at a third the price of Turkmenistan. This is the ENTIRE
issue. In Turkmenistan Israel holds the lease rights to sell this gas and US
companies are building the pipeline called TAPI. This has gotten Iran upset and
that is what the whole reason for petroleum sanctions. We have US military
holding the Taliban at bay in the North all the while prince and his private
paramilitary mercenary forces are executing pipeline security privately in the
South to lend some sort of propriety to this whole sham of a war. Americans
should demand presidential head on a platter for this fraud. Deni-ability is
everything.
www.rense.com/general15/game.htm
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/04/the-real-nuclear-outlaws/
I wonder what would be the result of a poll here in America with the question "Who you would rather NOT have your next door neighbor?" and the following choices:
- A German family of practicing Christians, descendents of refugees from [Sudetenland, East Prussia, Danzig, or any other land Germany lost in WW2].
- A Jewish family, descendents of refugees from Germany.
- An Arab family, practicing Muslims, descendents of Palestinian refugees.
My bet would be that 90%++ would rather not want to live next door to Arabs.
True, anonymous. On the other hand, if you left out "Arab", the automatic negative answer would be "A Jewish family". Because hatred directed at one group doesn't stop at that one group. If one group they hate suddenly disappears they are on to the next.
Anon, thats way off.
I would say more like 98% would be turned off by moslems..It would be 99.5 % but there are some dingos here in US do not know the difference between moslems and christians.....
The German people have always been and will always be easily brainwashed to support any cause that feeds their egos and promotes racial superiority. If history tells us anything it is that the German people have been a barbaric and racist people from the start.
I personally wouldn't care if my neighbors were German, or Jewish, or Irish (which is the case currently), or WASP, or, for that matter, Japanese or Koreans (I have no dog, so Koreans pose no risk to my family). But if Arabs moved in next door, I probably would put my house up for sale. Why? Simply because I don't trust they would not put up a suicide belt manufacturing operation in their basement. There are manufacturing accidents in Gaza and West Bank every while (they blame more than half on Israeli operations, when in fact it was mishandling of explosives). After they tried twice to topple WTC (succeeded only on the 2nd attempt on 9/11), anything could be expected. I don't want to be caught in explosion in the name of their jihad, and unlike them don't count on 72 virgins.
About the story of Schindler, I have been a carer of a lady who was saved by Schindler and his wife, there where not enough words in the world to say how much she admired Schindler and all the stories she told me how they have saved Jews and to what extend they went to bribe German soldiers to save a Jewish life, she also told me a story about her friend a prisoner in one of the camps and I cant remember witch one, there was a young German soldier who fell in love with with a Jewish girl, he offered to save her and get her out but she wouldn't go with out her father, so he got her and her father out of the camp to his mothers farm by some miracle, fortunately the father and doughtier somehow survived as his mother organized false documents and they stayed on the farm till the end of the war, unfortunately the young savior was send to Stalingrad not beckose of this as he told the guards in the camp that they are dead, and was killed there, sad that a angel the savior was not speared.
Now they can get the hell out of Palestine.
Not until you get the hell out of here.
Chris, The fact there are anti-semites like you shows just why a strong Jewish state is still necessary. Thanks for the reminder.
Stop dropping the phrase "anti-Semite" so damn quickly and loosely. Why can't anyone have an opinion (that's not even threatening or filled with actual perjoratives to show actual hatred) that is against the politics of a Jew or the Jewish state?
Good grief.
People can express frustration at Israel's policies without being anti-semetic, but saying "now they can get the hell out of Palestine" goes well beyond simple politics. If you don't see it, then you are lacking in observational skills.
Palestine, where's that?
Right on Chris. Stop oppressing the Palestinians. The anti-semite card has been overused. For educationsake, Semite also encompasses Arabs non-Jews. So the "anti-semite" statement is irrelevant...
The sad thing is that israel has turned the holocaust tragedy into a "cash cow". They tunred it into an industry as Mr. Norman Finkelstein stated. Both of his parents perished in a concentration camp (RIP). Additionally, instead of taking the holocaust as an example to never be repeated, they do far worse to Palestinians. I commend all Jews who dissociate themselves from israel zionism...
Far worse to the Palestinians? Oh, please. I'm not going to defend all of Israel's actions, but to claim they are far worse than the Holocaust is bizarre and insane. Anyone who can make THAT statement has no credibility.
They are reclaiming some of what was taken from them. They hopefully will rebuild a culture that was nearly destroyed. It doesnt necessarily have anything to do with forgiveness, but rather justice.
Yes things will change as generations move on and time moves on. Only need to make sure that the past isn't forgotten. Remember that there are plenty of hsitory revisionist out there and we don't want them to get the upper hand with the passing of time.
Germany has rebounded from the collapse with great success. Leading Europe, equaling US in industrilization.
It was largely due to extremely hard work, ethics, decency and commitment to honor system germans possessed.
So, I think germans may lose the edge if thousands of jews emigrate there.
The Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and half a century of guaranteed national and economic security didn't hurt either (or the fact that "ethics and decency" were imposed, i.e. not voluntary)
it would blow your mind know how many "decent and ethical" germans were willing to sell out their neighbor for favours (my dad was in the First ID at the end of the war)...and we won;t even start with those germans under Soviet occupation...
Don't be an idiot. If Israel, one of the world leaders in technology development, medical advancement, etc., is any example, any country that gets an influx of Jews is bound to benefit.
The main worry in Europe is the influx of Muslims who come there with multiple wives and go on welfare. They also commit most of the violent crimes especially rapes and commit honor-killings.
Boy, you just mention Israel and the Jew baiting cockroaches come climbing out of the woodwork. But just like AP said, they are needed to remind us of why Israel is needed.
Cass, you got me wrong...
I did not mean to put down jews..
What I meant was germans are extreme conformists, where jews are entrepreneurs without limits.. So that may not work well for the country.
Sorry, I thought you had said that the Jews would harm Germany because they lacked ethics and decency.
If jews wish to reclaim German citizenship, their loyalty must be foremost with Germany and not israel.
Lesson should be learnt from US where jewish Americans crave for israel to the detriment of US interest, as exemplied by AIPAC.
Heinz: convoluted extrapolation
a passport does not necesarily equate with loyalty
And the Irish-Americans still crave Ireland. I hope you will tell an Irishman that that makes him disloyal to America...preferably in an Irish pub on St. Patrick's Day. But then, it's largely because of those Irish-Americans that Ireland has its independence in the first place.
Irish-Americans would have American interests first and Ireland interests second, whilst jewish-American would have israel interests first over US interests. That is the marked difference.
Jonathan Pollard, a jewish-American, betrayed US by spying for israel and passed vital information to israel to the detriment of US. Crave for one's root is one thing, but disloyal to the country of his adoption is another thing.
To the detriment of the United States, Jonathan Pollard's information led to the destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities. He was, however, an isolated case who brought remorse and embarrassment to Israel. And as for the Irish-Americans and their love for their ancestral land...many Irish-Americans went back to fight for Ireland's freedom, including Eamon de Valera, the first president.
If someone wants to be a citizen of a country, they should be loyal to that country only. Period. Otherwise, they are free to move - whether it's to Israel, germany, ireland, Iran, etc.
How ironic, "There's lots of space here", I think Hitler called it liebenstraum, "We just need a little living room", which is why he invaded all the surrounding countries, and killed his citizens. At least they are offering the survivor's descendants a college education. They should get a good return on that at least.
Great, now maybe Palestinians can go back to Palestine.... and the jews can have their Europe. Palestinians were stripped from their country... like if the Holocaust was their fault. Palestine and her people cannot be blamed for the Nazi's terror on the European Jews, Wasn't the U.S. wacthing the extermination of Jews from the side lines ?????
Nay, in fact the Zionists purchased their property, going back to the late 19th Century. They acquired more when it was used as a base to attack them three times.
Nah, the Holy Land was Jewish throughout the centuries, though the Muslims attacked the Jewish community over and over again, like in 1834 and 1929. The only reason Israel is fit to live in and not a malarial swamp surrounded by desert is the hard work of first the Zionists and then the Israelis.
The "Palestinians" have Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan: all three @!$%#holes of despair and Muslim intolerance. Nayooola, why do their brothers the Jordanians, keep them in camps when Israel has settled all the Jews kicked out of Muslim countries?
Israel itself isn't all that great to live in, which is why so many Jews are leaving and flocking back to Germany and Europe. Nothing beats the European way of life and Israelis know it. especially now that their ultra-religious are beginning to beat and oppress women in the streets like Muslims have for so long. Sadly, they are learning that you cannot have a country based upon a religion without fundamentalism taking over.
Had a neighbor who was a liberator of one of the many camps-a true gentleman that never forgot what evil men can do, while good men do nothing. I do not think I could visit Germany if I were Jewish.
you live in the USA? Just look at American history....slave and American indian history does not seem to bother you. Which country/people have a "clean" history?
If the German Neo-Nazi Party gets wind of this, there could easily another Krystalnacht.
They can try, but the German authorities tolerate very little of that nonsense!
Haven't you guys heard? The American Nazi Party now has an official lobbyist in Washington. I doubt that he will get very far with Cantor and Lieberman.
"a free university education" -- How cool is that?!
Germany is a country that will thrive in the coming decades. They are interested in building, living and working "green" and they don't see making those changes as a hindrance to commerce. They encourage education, creativity and innovation. Their citizens are free to move through and work anywhere in multi-cultural Europe without hindrance.
This is a nation that rose from the ashes of the Old World to create a new and better social order.
If I weren't so old, I'd think about moving there myself.
I'm German born but grew up in States my entire life. My best friends in school were Jewish we got along great. I hope we have move on. I date several Jewish gentleman it was no big deal. So when I hear now I'm Jewish I think O.k. That's a religion to me and not nationalty. So when you say I'm from this country, great it's not about religion. I hope more German Jewish would go and see Germany it has become more melting pot of different nationality.
Alekium Shalom
Great news..Now they can start a German version of AIPAC and leech off of their gov't instead. The US has had enough let Germans pay them their blood money.
As a descendant of German-Americans who fought other Germans in World War I and II, I don't understand how any Jew could feel comfortable living in Germany, or praising it for that matter.
As a Christian, I would suggest that the Holocaust and the insane deprivation of humanity the Nazi's inflicted never, ever, be forgotten. EVER! Repeatedly, it seems that mankind simply cannot exist without unjustifiable hatred and a willingness to exterminate an entire race of people.
"Gablinger says that present-day Germany is a very safe place for Jews."
It is a very safe place for just about everyone now. I have never felt safer anywhere than I did in Germany. I think very strongly every day about moving to Berlin or Munich. It may seem odd to some, but there is something comforting about the fact that publicly denying the Holocaust is a felony in Germany.
Not to mention, they know how to drive there.
No never forget the Holocaust, learn from it. But stop the hatred everywhere. I hope the Middle East would find peace. I'm fear from there we will all be pull into world war. I had son-in-law there, he saw things know person should not see, my point is killings needs to stop, this should learn from all these horrible wars. So yes a Israel is not safe there country. So Germany would be better to go too then even America. We have to many killings here.
Good article. I'm one of the statistics. I have a German passport that I received from the San Francisco consulate in 2011. I was born and raised in New England (rooting for the Red Sox) and never learned German. But I had many business trips to Germany (work in the technology area) and work with Germans. My kids are also getting German passports and one is applying to graduate programs in Germany and England in her field as an EU citizen. That will sure beat having to pay absurdly high US univeristy tuition costs. Also I'm going to get licensed to practice patent law in Europe because so long as one is both a citizen of a member EU State and a laywer of a member EU state, one can be admitted to practice. There are large benefits to dual US/EU citizenship.
As for the terrible history of the Nazi era, my father (a naturalized US citizen) was always proud of his German upbringing and education but hated the Nazis (my paternal grandparents were killed in Poland). But my woking closely with Germans (who, like me, were born well after the war) as colleagues gave me a better sense of how reformed the country has become. Now they (my German colleagues) give me a hard time over my poor language skills and insist (now that I'm a citizen) that I have to write my emails in German and I need Google translator to function.
What an outstanding example of the human potential to move past hatred to acceptance.
So, next up, what say Israel extends full citizenship to all Palestinians? With the same rights to live, work, own property, travel, obtain education, organize politically and express themselves that all Israelis have.
It's an uncomfortable truth that the chief reason many Holocaust survivors moved to Palestine in the first place was the USA wouldn't let them in. Even in the 70's, the first choice of Russian Jews trying to escape Soviet anti-Semitism was the USA. We essentially forced them to go to Israel.
Israel is a colonial outpost, not a beacon of opportunity. While it's great that these young people are building vibrant new lives in Berlin, it's sad they've given up trying to change the State of Israel.
I'm the American-born son of two refugees who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto before it was sealed off for extinction--their parents, all siblings (as young as 10 years old) and 99% of their friends were murdered by the Germans--so I wouldn't even visit Germany, let alone move there, for anything in the world. They can keep their passports, their free university education, and their "dynamic" Berlin--to me, Germany is a nation of killers.
Yes, I know that Germans born after the war are not literally guilty of the sins of their fathers, and I don't actually blame them personally. Still, if you've ever been bitten by a snake, you hate and fear all snakes--even those that haven't bitten you. It will sound irrational to some--but then again, most of those who will criticize my attitude probably had grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins....I didn't.
I do not forget, and I do not forgive.