Dena Ryness

I grew up knowing that my grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, and that she had managed to escape from Nazi Germany. She had a long line of German ancestry on both sides of her family, which extended back several centuries.

I grew up in a house in which my parents refused to buy German-manufactured products, and would not visit Germany, although my grandmother herself always made it clear that she harboured no ill feeling towards the post-WW2 generation of Germans, who had only ever shown compassion and contrition for what had happened.

As I grew up, I challenged this view. I am a linguist; I studied languages at university, I lived abroad, and I always worked for international companies. I loved that I did business with Germans, and travelling as much as I did for work made me start to identify with my German ancestry.

After the referendum on Brexit in 2016, I felt a visceral loss. I felt strongly European, but I was mourning for the official, formal connection to my European identity that had been taken away from me. I heard a few stories of people who, like me, had parents or grandparents who were Holocaust survivors, and who were applying for restoration of their families’ German citizenship. At the start of 2017, my grandmother died, and I decided to apply for German citizenship. Partly, I wanted to feel permanently connected to my grandmother, but I also felt an unease that without the advantage of free movement in Europe, my safety net had been taken away from me. I had started to encounter antisemitism for the first time, and saw the practical benefit, as well as the emotional need, to reclaim my family’s German citizenship.

I hadn’t wanted to apply while my grandmother was still alive, in case it evoked painful memories and upset her. My father had died several years earlier, but I like to believe that his views on German citizenship would have evolved in light of the British loss of EU membership, growing antisemitism, and the prudence of a having a safety net.

My initial application was rejected, on account of Article 116. I persevered, and came across the Couchmans and their Article 116 Group. With their help, my application was resubmitted. It took several months, but finally I was summoned to the German Embassy in London during the Covid pandemic to receive my citizenship.

I have since had a baby, and am pleased that my German citizenship has passed to her. It connects her to my grandmother, and it will bring her the safety and opportunities that my grandmother had taken away from her.