Austrian Consulate in New York held citizenship conferral ceremony for descendants of Holocaust victims

Acting Consul General Johannes Gassner with citizenship recipients

On Wednesday, 19 September, the Austrian Consulate General in New York held a celebratory reception for eleven citizenship recipients and their guests. All participants had successfully filed declarations according paragraph 58c of the Austrian Citizenship Act, which allows descendants of people who were persecuted under the National Socialist Regime to (re)gain Austrian citizenship.

Acting Consul General Johannes Gassner welcomed the new Austrian citizens in his speech and highlighted the historical responsibility of the Republic of Austria to take steps towards continuous reconciliation: “Your willingness to restore and strengthen your connection to Austria after this connection was brutally and unjustly severed decades ago by a criminal regime cannot be taken for granted. Thank you for your trust.”

After the formal conferral of their citizenship decree, guests were invited to a reception. The event brought together many participants from different generations, with different life stories and family histories. The birth years of citizenship recipients ranged from 1937 to 2022.

Since the amended Citizenship Act entered into force in 2020, Austria has been able to welcome more than 33,000 new citizens. The Austrian Consulate in New York alone has processed over 2.700 successful applications. “It is encouraging to see that year after year the number of applications only continues to grow.” The Acting Consul General expressed his hope that “in the future, even more people will take this step to reclaim their citizenship rights and their ties to Austria”.

Photo: Austrian Consulate General in New York