eos Rechtsanwälte

The citizenship authorities with jurisdiction for Vienna have opined, before the Vienna Administrative Court, that well-founded fear of Nazi-persecution for members of the Jewish community in Austria can be established long before the Nazis seized power in Germany in January 1933 and even traced back to November 1918. This change in administrative practice could significantly increase the number of direct descendants of Holocaust victims eligible for privileged naturalization.

Since September 2020, Holocaust survivors and descendants of Holocaust victims and survivors have been able to acquire Austrian citizenship in privileged proceedings.

Under one of the routes to citizenship, applicants need to show that they (or their ancestors): (i) were Austrian, citizens of a former territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or stateless, (ii) had their main domicile in Austria, and (ii) fled abroad before 15 May 1955 because they feared persecution by Nazi agents.

While these provisions contained a "stop date" (15 May 1955), they left open the question of the earliest date after which flight from post WWI Austria must have occurred.

In September 2020, the citizenship authorities with jurisdiction for Vienna, in their administrative practice, adopted 30 January 1933 (the date Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany) as the start date for persecution. In other words, all members of Austrian Jewish communities (and other persecuted groups) who fled Austria after 30 January 1933 were considered to have done so because of a well-founded fear of Nazi persecution.

In a recent case based on a Jewish ancestor who fled from Vienna in 1929, the citizenship authorities submitted a historical report which was accepted by the Viennese Administrative Court and confirmed that well-founded fear of Nazi persecution for members of the Jewish community in Austria can certainly be traced back to 1925 and most likely even to November 1918, when WWI ended and the First Austrian Republic took shape.

This is because there was widespread antisemitism within the Austrian state apparatus (including in the judiciary and the police) which meant that the Austrian state was unable and unwilling to offer protection against ever increasing attacks by Nazi supporters on members of the Jewish community.

Consequently, members of the Jewish community who fled Austria as early as 1925, and possibly as early as 1918, can be considered to have done so due to a fear of persecution, and may therefore be entitled, in the event that the other eligibility requirements are fulfilled, to Austrian citizenship in privileged proceedings.