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02/10/2019
Austrian citizenship for descendants of victims of NAZI persecution
The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) warmly welcomes the introduction of an amendment to the Austrian citizenship law that widens the eligibility criteria for former refugees and survivors of Nazi oppression and their descendants to be able to apply for Austrian nationality. Particularly noteworthy is that a descendant of a refugee can apply to become an Austrian citizen irrespective of whether their antecedent chose to do so, and that obtaining Austrian citizenship will have no bearing on an applicant’s British nationality. Ahead of 1 September 2020, from when the amendment takes effect, we look forward to working with colleagues at the Austrian embassy to guide our members and their families who express interest in pursuing an application. The link below by the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs sets out the specific terms of the extension to the citizenship law. For more information please click on the link:...
02/10/2019
AJR ANNUAL TEA PARTY PROVES TO BE A SHOWSTOPPER
The Association of Jewish Refugees welcomed members and their families to a lovely afternoon tea and medley of songs from The Great American ‘Jewish’ Songbook sung by acclaimed singer Robert Habermann. The tea was held at the beautifully refurbished South Hampstead Synagogue, the shul where some of the refugees came to pray in the early years after the AJR was founded in 1941, and which from 11 November will host the organisation’s latest regional group, their 45th, for a monthly meeting for members who live nearby. In his welcome speech, AJR Chairman Andrew Kaufman (MBE) described the stellar event as “the highlight of the AJR calendar” before mentioning that the AJR would not be the organisation it is today without the support of its thriving membership of just under 2,000 members, with two thirds from the first generation. Andrew Kaufman paid tribute to the outgoing Director of the Wiener...
05/09/2019
AJR statement on issuing of decrees on the restoration of German citizenship
The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) warmly welcomes the announcement by Horst Seehofer, Minister of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, of two decrees that will, with immediate effect, simplify the process and widen the eligibility criteria for those descendants of victims of National Socialist oppression applying for the restoration of German citizenship. These two decrees signify an important extension of the possibilities for restoring German citizenship given that the existing eligibility criteria of Article 116 of the German Basic Law (the provision of the restoration of German citizenship) are limited. This simplified path to citizenship was previously restricted to a time window from 1957 to 1970. It is now open to all children (and their descendants) whose German parents acquired foreign citizenship due to National Socialist persecution and consequently lost their German citizenship. Additionally, the decrees now allow descendants of Jewish refugees from National Socialist...
03/09/2019
Remembering the Kitchener Camp
AJR was delighted to unveil a blue plaque in Sandwich, Kent on Monday 2 September 2019, in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Kitchener Camp which gave refuge to 4,000 Jewish men following their rescue from Nazi-occupied Europe. Guests at the ceremony included Kitchener Camp descendants and the Mayor of Sandwich. The plaque was unveiled by Robert May and Adrienne Harris, whose fathers were brothers and were both Directors at the camp, along with AJR Trustee, Frank Harding, who devised our commemorative plaque scheme. The Kitchener Descendants Group, led by Clare Weissenberg, author Clare Ungerson, Stephen Nelken and Paul Secher, were instrumental in bringing the Kitchener Camp to the attention of the AJR. Frank Harding said, “It is with great pleasure that we are recognising one of the lesser known acts of rescue of Britain’s Second World War history, the remarkable story of the Kitchener Camp through which 4,000 lives...
07/08/2019
Committee on Individual Compensation for Victims of WWII Transport by NS
Committee on Individual Compensation for Victims of WWII Transport by NS Background and Eligibility Criteria: The Dutch Railways Fund opened on 05 August 2019, with deadline for all applications of 5 August 2020. Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), the Dutch state railway company, announced that Holocaust survivors and the families or heirs of Holocaust victims who were deported on its trains to concentration and extermination camps during World War II when the Netherlands was under Nazi-German occupation may be eligible to receive a lump sum payment from a fund established by NS. The Committee recommends, partly on the basis of an examination of other schemes, that the individual payments be determined as follows: 1. €15,000 for each living survivor transported to Westerbork, Vught or Amersfoort by order of the occupying forces with the aim of transporting them to a concentration or extermination camp outside the national borders with the aim of the...