Austrian Citizenship by Descent: The Section 58c Route for Descendants of Nazi Victims

Most people who become Austrian go through naturalisation, with its years of residence, language requirement and the renunciation of their old citizenship. There is a separate route that works very differently, and it matters to a large diaspora audience around the world. It is the provision under Section 58c of the Austrian Citizenship Act for victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants.

This route is not naturalisation. It is a recognition of citizenship for people whose families were forced out of Austria, and its conditions are far lighter.

Who qualifies

The provision covers people who were persecuted by the Nazi regime and forced to leave, and their direct descendants. In broad terms, an eligible ancestor is someone who was an Austrian citizen, a citizen of one of the successor states of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy, or a stateless person with a main residence in Austria, and who left because of persecution.

The persecution covered includes people who fled for political, religious or other reasons connected to the regime, generally in the period from 1933 to 1955, and people who left because they feared persecution or had stood up for the democratic Republic.

Crucially, the route reaches down the generations. It is open not only to the persecuted person but also to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This is why so many families abroad, particularly Jewish families whose relatives fled Austria, have been able to reconnect with Austrian citizenship.

You do not have to give up your current citizenship

This is the feature that sets Section 58c apart from naturalisation. People claiming citizenship under this route are not required to renounce their existing nationality. They can become Austrian, and dual citizens, while keeping the passport they already hold.

That is a deliberate exception to Austria's general rule against dual citizenship, made in recognition of the wrong that forced these families to leave in the first place.

How the process works

The route does not run through the provincial naturalisation offices in the same way as a standard application. It begins with a declaration, an Anzeige, which you submit to the responsible Austrian authority, typically through an Austrian embassy or consulate if you live abroad.

The applications became possible from the provision coming into force on 1 September 2020, and the route has remained open since. Because you are establishing a family connection, the heart of the application is documentary. You need to trace and prove the line from your eligible ancestor down to yourself, which usually means birth certificates, marriage certificates and records showing your ancestor's Austrian connection and their departure.

There is no residence requirement, no language exam and no citizenship test for this route, and it does not carry the standard naturalisation fee. It is the genealogical evidence that does the work, and assembling it is the main task.

Where this fits, and where to get help

Section 58c is a specific provision with detailed conditions, and individual cases turn on the exact family history and the records that survive. Confirm the current rules and the documents required on the official Austrian sources, such as oesterreich.gv.at and the Austrian embassy or consulate responsible for your country. Organisations that assist descendants of persecuted families, and advisers experienced in this area, can help when records are hard to trace.

This route is different in kind from the standard naturalisation path, which is the subject of the rest of this series. If your connection to Austria is through residence rather than ancestry, the eligibility and application guides will be more relevant to you.

And if you are taking the standard route, the citizenship test is free to prepare for. PassCitizen has all the Austrian citizenship test questions, by topic and by Bundesland, with no account needed.

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