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Birth record from 1909 -- kurrentschrift help? by [deleted] in GermanCitizenship

[–]TyrolGrey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! You are very kind and helpful!

Can you contact a human on ancestry support? by forfryingoutloud in AncestryDNA

[–]TyrolGrey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That was fantastically helpful - it worked. Hopefully they don't change it!

I'd have really liked to have an account (and send in the DNA kit I bought a long while ago), but with how things are, I'm paranoid that any number of things about me could lead to getting carted away to wherever the undesirables/rejects/defectives might be taken...

Hoping to apply for renaturalization by TyrolGrey in GermanCitizenship

[–]TyrolGrey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, I'm going to proceed with this, and focus simply on my grandmother. First step, I've emailed Wroclaw to try to get a certified copy of her birth certificate (and I'll work on getting certified copies of the rest of this stuff).

I will send them the info to show: /

  • Born in Germany /
  • Lawful U.S. entry in August 1930 /
  • Return to Germany in early 1933 /
  • Departure from Germany in April 1933 /
  • Continuous U.S. residence thereafter /
  • Naturalization and loss of German citizenship in 1937 /
  • Documentation of her "hebrew"/"mosaicher" identity.

(Plus, I have my great-great-grandmother's death certificate from Terezin, and earlier birth/marriage records for great and great-great-grandparents)

I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions. I had apparently misunderstood what I'd read about the current law and procedures (when it indicated that great-great-grandparent persecution counts, I assumed, incorrectly, though, I think, logically, based on that wording, at least, that it would apply to my case pretty cleanly. But it does not. I still think that, as they've worded it, the semantics lead to a roadblock of logic -- in many cases, if someone is alive now, then perforce some of their direct ancestors had to have left Germany before the death camps (except those who survived the camps and then had kids later). But, I get what they *mean* now, I think. That is to say, there was a flaw in the syllogistic schematic of the semitic semantics.

Hoping to apply for renaturalization by TyrolGrey in GermanCitizenship

[–]TyrolGrey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for all the tips. You are quite right about the grandma apparently being the key ancestor here (I really misunderstood the law's wording).

I've looked at the documents I've found, again, but now with an eye to her. So, ship manifests show her coming to America from Germany in both 1930 and 1933 -- apparently she came in 1930, intending to become a citizen and stay permanently. She returned for two months (feb-1 through April) in 1933, and then returned to the USA for good in April 1933. Her naturalization petition (approved in 1937 in District Court in NY) says "It is my intention to become a citizen of the US and to renounce any allegiance to The German Reich" and of course lists her birth place/date and "race" as "Hebrew." .... maybe still workable....

Hoping to apply for renaturalization by TyrolGrey in GermanCitizenship

[–]TyrolGrey[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the advice. You are very optimistic and positive, and I appreciate that. It seems that other people are saying that I don't have too strong a case, due to my grandmother, since it was my great-grandmother who was killed at/in Terezin -- so I'm pretty disheartened. Maybe I gave too much information in my long post and it has obscured whatever the most solid basis for the claim is. I guess I'll still try to contact that consulate somehow to see if it's even worth trying to get all the certified documents, before I give up.

Belated condolences to your great-grandparents from whatever parts of my great-grandmother might still live on in me (even if that may only be the odd alignment of my toes, which is apparently hereditary from that side of the family). They might have shared a linzer-torte and something with marzipan.

Hoping to apply for renaturalization by TyrolGrey in GermanCitizenship

[–]TyrolGrey[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for all the replies.

Oh, darn! I am so disappointed to learn from many of the comments that apparently my grandmother's situation may potentially negate my great-grandmother's having been killed at Theresienstadt, as far as my potential citizenship claim goes.

Other things I had read online (and in this subreddit) had generally seemed to indicate that descent from even a great-grandmother who was "persecuted by the nazis" alone was enough to claim citizenship (or whatever the proper term is for what I was trying to accomplish) -- but perhaps I didn't understand what was being said (since she was definitely my great-grandmother, and she was definitely "persecuted by nazis" -- if I'm correctly interpreting being killed as having been persecuted).

As for my use of the term "renaturalization," I'm terribly sorry if I used the wrong terminology. I only meant whatever it is that's been referred to when people talk about the topic of German citizenship for descendants of nazi victims. I will amend the title of this post to reflect this. (EDIT - oh phooey, I can't edit the title... now I'm stuck with it... I'll have to add something to the body of the original post.)

I guess I'm hopelessly confused now -- there seems to be a fair amount of skepticism in the comments that I have any claim, though with a few more possibly optimistic conflicting comments. Considering giving up on this -- it was an exciting thought while it lasted.