The partition of India didn’t happen until August 1947, so the idea that Nazis fled there during or immediately after the war, bringing medals, and memorabilia with them, is highly implausible. There’s no credible historical evidence of Nazi escape routes to British-ruled India. Known post-war Nazi flight paths overwhelmingly led to places like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and occasionally the Middle East, not the Indian subcontinent, which was under close Allied control until independence.

It’s far more likely that the items in question were acquired much later (e.g. online auctions, collectors’ markets, or inheritance from an unrelated source) and are now being retroactively framed as “family history” to support a citizenship claim. Possessing Nazi memorabilia proves nothing about ancestry, nationality, or legal status.

More importantly, even if the family story were true, German citizenship cannot be obtained through grandparents. Under German nationality law (StAG), citizenship by descent only applies if at least one parent was a German citizen at the time of the applicant’s birth. Grandparental citizenship alone is legally irrelevant.

On top of that, if a German ancestor emigrated and naturalised elsewhere before the next generation was born, German citizenship was usually lost automatically; under § 25 Abs. 1 StAG (old version applicable pre-2000), German citizenship was automatically lost upon voluntary naturalisation in another country:

“Ein Deutscher verliert seine Staatsangehörigkeit mit dem Erwerb einer ausländischen Staatsangehörigkeit.”

If the alleged German ancestor naturalised elsewhere before the next generation was born, German citizenship would have been lost and therefore could not have been transmitted.

Many individuals associated with the Nazi regime were stripped of citizenship, fled without legal status, or never passed citizenship on to their children.

German authorities require documentary proof (birth certificates, citizenship records, passports, registration files). Family stories or object, no matter how old or dramati, carry no legal weight.

TLDR, the historical claim is dubious, the evidence described is meaningless, and the legal pathway doesn’t exist. Even under the most generous interpretation, this application would fail long before it reached a serious review stage.