D. L., S. L., K. L. and M. L. The case of reinstatement of Lithuanian citizenship to the descendants of Litvaks

The grandparents and great-grandparents of the person (the applicant) were citizens of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940, they were born in Lithuania and lived there. In 1925, the grandfather was issued an internal passport of Lithuania. In 1925, the grandmother was issued an internal passport of Lithuania. In 1928, the future grandparents of the applicant got married in Kaunas. In 1929, the grandparents left Lithuania for South Africa. The great-grandmother of the person was a citizen of Lithuania. In 1921, she was issued an internal passport of Lithuania. The great-grandfather of the applicant was a citizen of Lithuania. In 1921, he was issued an internal passport of Lithuania. The great-grandfather of the person resided in Kaunas before 15 June 1940; he was a baker. When the World War II began, he was brought for forced labour at Dachau concentration camp, Germany. The great-grandfather did not come back to Lithuania: he perished at the concentration camp in 1944.

In 1929, the grandfather and the grandmother of the applicant left Lithuania for South Africa, because they felt unsafe in Lithuania upon taking into account the situation in the country (the disturbance initiated by the population against persons of Jewish origin), feared for their future and thought that if they remain in Lithuania, they would be possibly earlier or later killed by active supporters of ideas of anti-Semitism, like the great-grandfather of the applicant (the father of his grandfather) who remained in Lithuania and was brought to Dachau concentration camp where was killed.

The grandmother and the grandfather of the applicant felt the approaching danger taking into account the general political situation and the events related to persons of Jewish origin in Lithuania and Europe, so they decided to leave Lithuania. Because of their origin (they were Jews), the grandmother and the grandfather of the applicant felt permanent animosity as well as preconception in respect of them and members of their family. Anti-Jewish sallies in the country began as early as approximately in 1915: persons of Jewish origin were expelled from business; the population was urged to buy no goods from Jews; beats of Jews and smashing windows of their houses in small towns became very frequent; signboards of Jewish enterprises were muddied and persons of Jewish origin were persecuted and tortured. In addition, in the said period, the racist ideology was increasingly spreading from Germany to whole Europe, including the middle Lithuania; the ideas of anti-Semitism gradually became stronger as well. Implementation of the policy of anti-Semitism became particularly active in 1941-1942. It is notable that Kaunas County played almost the central role in the history of genocide of Lithuanian Jews (the Holocaust). Kaunas was an administrative and political centre of Lithuania occupied by the Nazi. Namely, in Kaunas City and Kaunas County, the measures of the Nazi occupation policy (including those related to Jews) were implemented first of all. Because of this, Kaunas County may be considered a model of persecution and killing of Jews in the whole Lithuanian province. The full-scale persecution of Jews in Kaunas County as well as in a majority of other locations of Lithuania began in August 1941, when German civil authorities began governing Lithuania, and in the middle of September of the same year, all Jewish communities residing in gminas of Kaunas County were murdered. Before the mass-scale killing of Jews, provisional ghettos and isolation camps were arranged for the same purpose. First of all, it was strived to deprive Jews of civil rights and human rights, to isolate them from people of other nations, then concentrate them in provisional ghettos and isolation camps, confiscate their properties and finally obliterate them. It should be noted that in the above-mentioned period, Jews were persecuted not for political reasons, but because of their origin only. The said historical circumstance caused the mass emigration of persons of Jewish origin from Lithuania since 1915 and in 1941-1942. The most abundant flows of Jewish emigrants from Lithuania in the said period moved towards the South America, the North America and the South Africa.

The father of the applicant was born in South Africa and he was a citizen of South Africa. The applicant was born and lived in South Africa. He was a citizen of South Africa and Israel.

After the assessment of the circumstances provided in the dossier, the Migration Department of Lithuania passed a positive decision on a restoration of citizenship of Lithuania without renouncing the earlier granted citizenship in respect of the person (the applicant), his son, his sister and the daughter of his sister.