A demand that the Austrian government re-examine the naturalizations issued since 1918 is voiced today in one of the Viennese newspapers closely connected with the government.
This demand, if carried out, will affect tens of thousands of Jews in Austria, formerly citizens of Poland, Rumania and Czechoslovakia, who obtained their naturalization papers after 1918.
Jewish leaders here regard the article in the government paper as a “ballon d’essai.” It is believed that the government wishes to test the reaction to this demand abroad as well as within Austria.
The article in the government paper suggests that the reexamination be conducted along the same lines as in Nazi Germany. Thousands of Jewish families in Germany have had their citizenship revoked in the last two years merely on the ground that the naturalization took place after 1918.
The denaturalized citizens of Austria would remain “persons without a country,” since they would not be given citizenship by their native lands, whose citizenship they gave up when they became naturalized Austrians.
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