EU citizenship for Jewish descendants: the routes open to families with Jewish ancestry

For many Jewish families, the European citizenship a great-grandparent held was taken away, given up under pressure, or lost in flight. Several countries now give it back to the descendants. Two of them, Germany and Austria, have routes written specifically for the descendants of people persecuted by the Nazi regime, with no generation limit, no language test and no need to give up your current citizenship. Others, such as Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and the Czech Republic, have descent or restoration routes that don’t depend on religion at all but fit many Jewish family histories.

This page sets out each route as our country guides describe it, then compares them in one table. The Sephardic routes in Spain and Portugal, which many older articles still describe as open, are both closed to new applicants.

The short answer

• Your ancestor was German and lost citizenship under the Nazi regime: Germany’s Article 116(2) or § 15. Any generation, no deadline.
• Your ancestor lived in Austria and was persecuted, deported or killed, or fled before 15 May 1955: Austria’s § 58c declaration. Any generation, free of Austrian fees.
• Your ancestor was a Lithuanian or Latvian citizen in 1940: restoration in Lithuania (to great-grandchildren) or registration in Latvia (no generation limit).
• Your ancestor was a Polish citizen after 1920: you may already be Polish, if the line was never broken.
• Your ancestor was Romanian, Czechoslovak or Hungarian: Romania’s Article 11, the Czech Section 31 declaration, or Hungarian simplified naturalisation, each with its own limits.
• Your family is of Sephardic origin: the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardic routes have closed. Look instead at the country your family last held citizenship in.

Not sure which country your ancestor was actually a citizen of? Borders moved repeatedly between 1918 and 1945, so a town can sit in three different states across three generations. Our free eligibility checker asks the questions in the order an official would.

Germany: Article 116(2) and § 15

Article 116(2) of the Basic Law says that former German citizens who were deprived of their citizenship on political, racial or religious grounds between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945, and their descendants, shall on application have their citizenship restored. It is a right, not a discretionary favour. The deprivation could be individual, through a name on the denaturalisation lists published in the Reichsanzeiger, or collective: the 11th Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law of 25 November 1941 stripped German Jews living abroad of their citizenship.

§ 15 of the Nationality Act, in force since 20 August 2021, covers the persecution cases Article 116(2) misses. It applies to people who, in connection with Nazi persecution between 1933 and 1945, lost or gave up German citizenship before 26 February 1955 (for example by taking another citizenship after fleeing), were excluded from acquiring it by marriage, legitimation or collective naturalisation, were refused naturalisation, or gave up their residence in Germany. Their descendants are entitled to naturalisation on application. The law excludes people sentenced to two or more years’ imprisonment, and lines where German citizenship was regained after 1945 and then lost again.

• Generations: no limit under either route.
• Dual citizenship: you keep your current citizenship.
• Language and residence: neither is required.
• Deadline: none.
• Where: applicants abroad apply to the Federal Office of Administration (BVA) in Cologne, usually through the German embassy or consulate. The German Embassy in London asks applicants not to chase progress until at least 30 months after the confirmation of receipt.

A 2020 Federal Constitutional Court ruling widened who counts as a descendant under Article 116(2). The German Foreign Office now includes children born before 1 April 1953 to German mothers and foreign fathers, and children born out of wedlock before 1 July 1993 to German fathers and foreign mothers. If an earlier application was refused under the old reading, it is worth applying again. Our German Article 116 citizenship guide covers the evidence and the process, and the German citizenship by descent guide explains how both routes sit alongside ordinary descent and the § 5 declaration.

Austria: the § 58c declaration

Austria’s route works the same way in spirit. Under § 58c of the Citizenship Act, as widened in 2020 and 2022, the direct descendants of people persecuted by the Nazi regime can become Austrian by a written declaration. The ancestor must have lived in Austria as an Austrian citizen, a citizen of a successor state of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, or a stateless person, and then either left Austria before 15 May 1955 because of persecution suffered or feared, been deported abroad before 9 May 1945, or died as a result of the persecution.

• Generations: no limit. Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and later generations, through mothers or fathers.
• Dual citizenship: you keep your current citizenship.
• Language and residence: no German test, no residence requirement.
• Cost: no Austrian fees for the declaration, the decision or the supporting papers.
• Deadline: none.

The line has to be direct: a persecuted great-aunt doesn’t give her siblings’ descendants a claim. Where the ancestor was deported or murdered, the Foreign Ministry says you generally need no documents about the ancestor at all. Read Austrian citizenship for descendants of Nazi victims for the groups, documents and archives in detail.

Lithuania: restoration, and the pre-1918 catch

Lithuania restores the citizenship of people who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania before the Soviet occupation of 15 June 1940, and of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The law doesn’t depend on ethnicity or religion, so descendants of Lithuanian Jews (Litvaks) qualify on exactly the same terms as anyone else. There is no language test and no residence requirement.

Dual citizenship is allowed if your ancestor left Lithuania for permanent residence abroad before 11 March 1990, or was exiled from occupied Lithuania. That covers survivors and refugees who reached the US, Israel, South Africa or elsewhere after the war. Families who moved within the Soviet Union after 15 June 1940 can restore citizenship only by renouncing their other one. See Lithuanian dual citizenship for the full list of exceptions.

The catch is timing. Much of the Jewish emigration from the Lithuanian lands happened before the First World War, under the Russian Empire, when there was no Lithuanian citizenship to hold. Being born in what is now Lithuania is not the test. An ancestor who left before 1918 and never obtained a Lithuanian passport or other proof of citizenship afterwards usually can’t be the basis for restoration. A second trap catches interwar emigrants: under the law of the time, naturalising in another country before 15 June 1940 ended Lithuanian citizenship. Our guides to Lithuanian citizenship by descent and to Lithuanian citizenship when your ancestor left before 1918 explain what still works in those cases.

Latvia: exiles and 1940 citizens

Latvia recognises as citizens the descendants of people who were Latvian citizens on 17 June 1940, with no generation limit in the law. If your ancestor fled the Soviet or German occupation, or was deported, between 17 June 1940 and 4 May 1990 and did not return to live in Latvia before 4 May 1990, you register as an exile’s descendant and can keep any other citizenship. These rules depend on citizenship and the circumstances of leaving, not on ethnicity or religion, so Jewish families who fled or were deported are covered like anyone else.

• Birth-date cut-off: exiles’ descendants born on or after 1 October 2014 don’t register directly; they become Latvian through a parent who registers first.
• Ancestor left before 1940: not an exile. If they were still a Latvian citizen on 17 June 1940, a separate route applies, but you keep your other citizenship only if it is from an EU, EFTA or NATO country, Australia, Brazil or New Zealand. Israel is not on that list.
• Language: no Latvian test for either of these routes.

Read Latvian citizenship for descendants of exiles for the documents and the archives that hold proof of 1940 citizenship.

Poland: confirmation of citizenship

Poland has no generation limit, but it doesn’t grant anything here: if the line holds, you are already Polish, and the process is confirmation of citizenship before the voivode. The line must trace back to an ancestor who held Polish citizenship on or after 31 January 1920, when the Citizenship Act took effect. Poland did not exist as an independent state from 1795 to 1918, so an ancestor who left the partitioned lands and naturalised elsewhere before 1920 may never have become Polish.

Between 1920 and 19 January 1951 Polish citizenship could be lost in several ways, most often by naturalising abroad or, for a woman, by marrying a foreigner. The exception that rescues many claims is military service: a man of military-service age generally couldn’t lose his citizenship that way without the government’s consent. That is why the Polish consulate in Tel Aviv asks for army-service evidence for people who emigrated to Palestine or Israel before 19 January 1951. Dual citizenship is permitted, although Poland treats you as solely Polish in its own dealings with you. Start with the Polish citizenship by descent guide, then the Polish citizenship confirmation guide for the application itself.

Romania: Article 11

Article 11 of Romania’s Law 21/1991 lets people reacquire citizenship if they, or an ancestor, lost it for reasons not attributable to them, or if they come from territories that were part of Romania before 1940, such as Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. It reaches children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, needs no residence in Romania, and lets you keep your current citizenship. Whether a particular family’s loss counts as one “not attributable to them” is decided by the National Citizenship Authority (ANC) case by case.

Two recent changes matter. Since 15 March 2025, Law 14/2025 requires Article 10 and 11 applicants to prove Romanian at B1 level, unless they are 65 or over or are former citizens reacquiring their own citizenship. And a bill filed in the Senate in September 2026 (B509/2026) would end descendants’ applications under Articles 10 and 11. It was not law when we last checked, but it is a reason not to wait. Processing commonly takes more than a year. See the Romanian citizenship by descent guide.

Czech Republic: the Section 31 declaration

Since 2019, Section 31(3) of the Czech Citizenship Act lets the child or grandchild of a former Czech or Czechoslovak citizen acquire Czech citizenship by declaration, provided the ancestor lost citizenship by 31 December 2013. It doesn’t matter how the citizenship was lost, so families who fled in 1938 or 1939, or after 1948, and took another nationality abroad are covered. It is an entitlement, with no language test, no residence requirement and no interview, and you keep your current citizenship.

The limit is generational: children and grandchildren only. A great-grandchild extension has been proposed but was not law as of October 2026. Czechoslovakia only existed from 28 October 1918, so an ancestor who emigrated and naturalised before then was never Czechoslovak. Read Czech citizenship by declaration for the documents, fees and filing.

Hungary: simplified naturalisation

Hungary has no persecution-specific route, but its general ones are wide. If citizenship passed down unbroken, you may already be Hungarian and can have that confirmed, with no language requirement. A declaration covers people who were released from or stripped of Hungarian citizenship, among other historical situations. And simplified naturalisation is open to anyone whose ancestor was a Hungarian citizen, with no generation limit and no residence requirement.

The condition for simplified naturalisation is a conversation in Hungarian with the official who takes your application, at an intermediate, two-way level; there is no exam or certificate. Many records sit in archives now in Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine or Austria, because the historical Kingdom of Hungary was far larger than today’s state. Hungary doesn’t require you to give up your current citizenship. See the Hungarian citizenship by descent guide and Hungarian simplified naturalisation.

Portugal and Spain: the Sephardic routes have closed

Portugal. The route that let descendants of Sephardic Jews expelled from Portugal claim nationality was introduced in 2015, tightened in 2022, and abolished by Lei Orgânica 1/2026, which took effect on 19 May 2026. The Jewish Community of Lisbon stopped accepting new certification requests on 4 May 2026. Applications filed before the change are still decided under the old law, but new applicants cannot use this route. Portugal’s ordinary routes for children and grandchildren of Portuguese citizens remain; see the Portuguese citizenship by descent guide.

Spain. Law 12/2015 gave Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin a three-year window from 1 October 2015, extended by one year to 1 October 2019. It is closed. The law still lets the Council of Ministers grant nationality to Sephardic applicants for exceptional circumstances or humanitarian reasons, but there is no open application window. Spain’s other routes are covered in Spanish citizenship through grandparents.

Many Sephardic families also have a more recent European history, in Greece, the Balkans, Italy or the Netherlands, for example. The country your family last held citizenship in is usually the better place to look now.

Comparison table

“Dual citizenship: yes” means the country doesn’t make you give up your current citizenship. Whether your other country lets you keep its citizenship is a separate question; see dual citizenship by descent, country by country.

Finding the records

Jewish family histories often have gaps where records were destroyed, never made, or kept by communities that no longer exist. Every route above still needs two things: proof of the ancestor’s citizenship (or, for Germany and Austria, of the persecution) and a documented line from that ancestor to you. Useful places to look include:

• the Jewish metrical books kept for births, marriages and deaths in the Russian Empire and elsewhere, many indexed through JewishGen (see church and community records);
• the Arolsen Archives and Yad Vashem’s Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, for deportation, camp and displaced-persons records;
• passenger lists, displaced-persons camp files and naturalisation records in the country your family reached; for the US, see the USCIS genealogy records guide;
• national archives in the country of origin, such as the Lithuanian Central State Archives for interwar passports, or the Vienna City and Provincial Archives and the Jewish Community of Vienna for Austrian families.

Foreign documents usually need an apostille and a certified translation. Our document chain guide, apostille guide and documents checklist cover the mechanics. If the paper trail is thin, a researcher who knows the archives can save months; see hiring a genealogist.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Basic Law (Grundgesetz), Article 116 and Nationality Act (StAG), § 15 (gesetze-im-internet.de, Federal Ministry of Justice)
• German Embassy London: Naturalisation of victims of Nazi persecution (Article 116(2) and § 15 groups, documents, processing)
• German Missions in the US: Einbürgerung nach Art. 116 Abs. 2 GG (2020 Constitutional Court ruling on descendants, § 15 exclusions)
• Austrian Citizenship Act 1985, consolidated text (RIS) and Austrian Foreign Ministry: Declaration pursuant to § 58c
• Migration Department of Lithuania (MIGRIS): Restoration of citizenship
• Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs of Latvia (PMLP): Latvian exiles and their descendants
• Embassy of Poland in Tel Aviv: Confirming Polish citizenship or its loss (documents, army-service evidence for emigration before 19 January 1951)
• National Citizenship Authority of Romania (ANC) and Law 21/1991 on Romanian citizenship
• Consulate General of the Czech Republic, Los Angeles: Children and grandchildren of former citizens
• Act LV of 1993 on Hungarian Citizenship (official text)
• Portuguese Ministry of Justice: new Nationality Law rules in force from 19 May (end of the Sephardic regime, pending applications)
• Law 12/2015 on Spanish nationality for Sephardic Jews of Spanish origin (BOE) (application window, extension, exceptional grants)

Checked against these sources on 29 October 2026. The German, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish pages above were read directly that day; the Romanian legislation site could not be opened, so the Romanian section follows our Romania guide, which was checked against it earlier. The Lithuanian, Latvian, Austrian, Czech and Hungarian sections summarise our dedicated guides, each of which lists the official pages it was checked against. This page is general information, not legal advice; only the deciding authority in each country can rule on your case.