Fewer Germans Claiming American Citizenship

Northern Advocate, 22 December 1948, Page 12

Fewer Germans Claiming American Citizenship

(By Jack Smyth, Reuters Correspondent) _ BERLIN (By Airmail) —The number of persons m Germany making claim to American citizenship has today been reduced S. a mere trickle” according to the United States Consulate here. " With the end of the war and the deterioration of the German economy thousands of Americans living in Germany applied for Per “ "aughtTefe by the outbreak of war Others chose to stay because they were married to Germans 01 foi othei reaS< From April, 1946, up to the present, however, approximately 6500 American citizens have been repatriated through the poi Bremen bv the six consular offices in Germany.

£>l tMJLICJLI UJ luv. oiA By investigation and examination it was found that in the majority of other cases, the person had in some manner expatriated himself and cherished the hope that time had erased or destroyed the official record of his One of the most exacting tasks performed by the legal division of United States Military Government at various echelons has been to determine the applicability and effect of various German laws and decrees, so that consular offices of the foreign service could judge the nationality status of many people who claimed American citizenship. Many Americans in Germany during the war served either voluntarily or under duress, with various German governmental agencies. The applicant in most instances had to swear an oath of allegiance to Hit-

Another means by which an American can lose nationality under the act ot 1940 is by voting in a political election in a foreign state. The theory behind this provision is that it is inconsistent with the continuity of United States citizenship for a person to identify himself with a foreign country to the extent of participating in an election. In a complex case of this nature, the subject claimed to have been born in the United States in 1903, to have been taken to Czechoslovakia as a child and evacuated from that country to eastern German in 1940. There he voted in the elections ol 1940, claiming that he did so on direct orders and only because he was afraid to refuse. The common law defines expatriation as a voluntary renunciation or abandonment of nationality or allegi-

ler as leader of the German slate. In a basic opinion written in May, 1946, it was held that party and state were identical in Nazi Germany, and that an oath to Hitler was an oath to a person who represented party and state in an inseparable amalgamation. ACTS OF EXPATRIATION An American taking such an oath would, therefore, expatriate himself under the United States Nationality ,A.ct. Service with the German armed forces likewise was an act of expatriation if the person had, or thereby, acquired German nationality. The Fuehrer Decree of May 25, 1943, concerning the acquisition of German citizenship by joining the German armed forces, the armed S.S., the German police, the Todt organisation, or the R.A.D. (German Labour Service!, provided that foreigners of German descent automatically 'acquired German nationality by joining these organisations. Such citizenship could not, however, be asserted until confirmed by the control immigration agency. In one interesting case, an American was inducted into the German Army in May. 1945. It seems probable that the immigration agency did not pass on his case prior to the surrender, but in an opinion written in November, 1946. it was nevertheless held that the American in question must be held to have lost his American nationality.

In this case, it was concluded that if the subject could establish the fact that he participated in the election against his will he would not lose American citizenship for that reason. While it might be argued that his vote was “voluntary” if he knowingly moved into a country in which he might be compelled to vote, the fact that he was forcibly expelled i'Lom Czechoslovakia would dispose of this objection. COMPLICATED CASES Many complicated cases, of which these are only a few examples, have been reviewed here since the end ol the war. Many more valid claims to American citizenship are still being presented, even at this late date, to the Berlin consulate. In fact, approximately 15 newly-dis-covered American citizens leave Berlin each month with a precious green passport and hope of a newer and better life when they reach their native land. A great many of the present-day repatriates are Volksdeutsche who were expelled from Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia during the past-war years. Minor American citizens who were previously too young to undertake the long journey to parents, relatives or friends on the other side of the Atlantic comprise the remainder of the group.