Herr Baddiel and Herr Lucas discuss becoming German

According to comedian Matt Lucas, who has already been through the process, the only reason fellow comedian David Baddiel would apply for German citizenship is because “Jews don’t queue”, writes Jenni Frazer.

The pair, both descendants of German Jews who survived the Holocaust by fleeing to Britain, were taking part in an at-times light-hearted discussion about acquiring German nationality.

The event at Westminster Synagogue took place under the auspices of the Association of Jewish Refugees, the Wiener Holocaust Library and the German Embassy.

To a packed in-person and virtual audience, German deputy ambassador Rudiger Bohn gave a passionate address in which he noted Germany today is now home to the eighth largest Jewish community in the world.

“Fundamentally Jews are part of our society”, he said, and “though the wrong that was done cannot be undone”, nevertheless the Jewish presence today was “an extraordinary gift to us”.

Each application, the diplomat said, “is a huge step forward for our society. I stand in awe of everyone who takes this step. But I understand if there are people who say they cannot do it because of what happened”.

In the discussion which followed, moderated by the German writer Karina Urbach, both Lucas and Baddiel gave thoughtful responses on why they had considered seriously taking the step. Lucas has already acquired German citizenship and praised the German embassy sta and the Association of Jewish Refugees for their often sympathetic help.

Baddiel said he had not yet gone through the process though he had been thinking about it for two years. His mother had been born in Germany and arrived as a baby in Britain with her parents.

“Straightforwardly, my first motivation was Brexit, because if you’re British and travelling in Europe… well, it’s just very annoying now,” he said. “My family got out just before the war. My mother had quite a lot of anger and rage towards Germany and I’m not sure how she would feel about my trying to acquire a German passport. By continuing to ignore the possibility of citizenship, I am continuing what the Nazis started — they said they didn’t want Jews to have anything to do with Germany. So it’s a reparation.”

Lucas agreed that his catalyst for acquiring German citizenship had initially been Brexit. “To me, it felt almost complacent to leave

Europe. I looked into whether there was a way I could stay. My grandmother was from Berlin. The o cial line is that Germany invites people who are eligible for citizenship to come and get it. I accepted the invitation.

“The Germany of today is not the Germany of my grandmother’s time, and nor is Britain the same sort of country that she came to. So taking German citizenship is not a lack of gratitude to Britain.”

The event was also addressed by AJR chief executive Michael Newman, who has himself acquired German citizenship, and the Wiener Holocaust Library’s Toby Simpson.

There were 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, murdered by shootings, starvation, slave labour and industrialised killings in death camps. Of these victims, 1.5 million were children, cruelly denied a future, and innocent of any crimes, apart from the perceived one of being born Jewish.

It is Yad Vashem UK’s aim to ensure that each named Jewish victim has a memorial candle lit in their honour on every HMD and Yom HaShoah.

Guardian of the Memory aims to ensure that the victims’ life stories are never forgotten, becoming part of our own treasured family histories.

Please visit: www.guardianofthememory.org