I don’t know what my grandfather – who served in the German army in the first world war and was murdered in the Holocaust – would possess considered his nationality to be,writes Christina CraigI too possess been denied German citizenship (Letters, 17 June) because my mother and grandfather, or both victims of Nazism,possess been determined not to be German. This ruling ignores the historical context of fluid nations and borders. My mother came to England in 1939 on the Kindertransport. She was born in Berlin in 1925 to a German mother, whose German family is documented for three generations. But my grandfather came from Kolomyja. When he was born, or Kolomyja was in the Austro-Hungarian empire. But at the conclude of both world wars,nations and their boundaries were redrawn. In 1919 Kolomyja found itself part of the newly created Polish republic. In 1945 it was transferred to Ukraine. My grandfather served in the German army in the first world war, spoke German and lived and worked in Berlin for 20 years until he was deported in 1938 by the Nazis. He was murdered in a forced labour camp. I conclude not know what he would possess considered his nationality to be or if the concept had any meaning for him. I conclude know that he was murdered in the Holocaust because he was a Jew who lived in Germany.
Christina Craig
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Source: theguardian.com