Will Czech Citizenship Be Restored to Kindertransport Children from Czechoslovakia and Their Families?
According to The Guardian, the law that stripped Czech citizenship from Czech Kindertransport children and their families may soon be changed. The Czech government is seeking to amend a communist-era law that denies the right to Czech citizenship to the descendants of Kindertransport children—Jewish minors evacuated to Britain from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia before World War II.
The Czech Law
This law was passed after the communists seized power in 1948, with one goal in mind: to punish defectors who fled the dictatorship for the capitalist West by revoking citizenship from them and their children—unless they had registered at a Czechoslovak embassy within one year of birth.
This law applied to anyone of Czech descent born between October 1949 and May 1969. As a result, it prevented the descendants of young Jewish refugees who fled Czechoslovakia from claiming Czech citizenship. The Kindertransport operation took place from March to August 1939, evacuating 669 Jewish children—mostly from Prague to London—via eight trains. The outbreak of World War II brought the project to a halt.
The law that punished defectors for “unauthorized abandonment” of Czechoslovakia was repealed in 1990, a year after the fall of communism in the Velvet Revolution. Those stripped of citizenship became eligible for reinstatement—but the regulation barring their descendants from reclaiming citizenship remained in effect.
A 2013 citizenship law granted those born between 1949 and 1969 one year (until January 2015) to apply for citizenship reinstatement. The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), a UK-based charity supporting Holocaust refugees, says that the vast majority of Kindertransport children were unaware of this opportunity.
This means that many who were eligible did not reclaim their citizenship. However, Czech officials say that more than 500 people born to Czech parents successfully received Czech citizenship.
Efforts to Amend the Law
The Association of Jewish Refugees is now urging the government of Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, to adopt an amendment proposed nearly two years ago by Czech MP Karla Šlechtová. The amendment would offer a new five-year window to those who missed their earlier eligibility.
The legislative process was paused after the 2021 general elections brought Fiala’s government to power. It was further delayed due to the government’s focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The AJR has enlisted support from Czech Jewish groups to lobby for the change.
“There is a lot of sympathy for the idea,” said Michael Newman, CEO of the organization. “There’s also draft legislation and an intent to act, but there’s no timeline for implementation. It’s frustrating.” The main hurdle is that the amendment conflicts with citizenship laws for descendants in Austria and Germany.
Under these laws, descendants of Jews from the Sudetenland (or those displaced during Hitler’s annexation of the region in 1938) can claim German citizenship—even if they are not eligible for Czech citizenship.
Was a member of your family part of the Kindertransport? Contact us to check your eligibility for Czech citizenship.
