German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, March 20, 2024 (Photo: Liesa Johannssen/REUTERS).
As part of promised reforms, Germany will soon make changes to its naturalization test. Those changes will include questions about the Holocaust, Israel’s right to exist, and Jewish life in Germany.
The changes were revealed by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser during an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel on Tuesday.
“Antisemitism, racism, and other forms of contempt for humanity rule out naturalization,” Faeser told Der Spiegel.
“Whoever does not share our values, cannot receive a German passport. We have drawn a crystal-clear red line,” she said.
The interior minister also said Germany has a “special responsibility” towards the Jews and Israel.
“Germany’s crime against humanity in the Holocaust entails our special responsibility for the protection of Jews and for the protection of the State of Israel,” Faeser said. “This responsibility is part of our identity today.”
Faeser also said that anyone who wants to become a German must know “what that means and acknowledge Germany’s responsibility.”
She recognized that the impetus for the changes was partly due to a rise in antisemitic incidents in Germany, even before the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities.
Many of the recent antisemitic attacks in Germany have been committed by immigrants from Muslim-background nations.
The new questions will become part of an updated naturalization test, replacing the latest version from 2013. The move is being made to modernize the citizenship law and the process of becoming a citizen in Germany. That initiative will also allow naturalization after a shorter period in the country, making it easier for people to become dual nationals.
In November, three parties in the nation’s Bundestag (parliament) called on the federal government to make changes to the naturalization test with regard to antisemitism and Jewish life in Germany.
In addition, a law enacted in January stipulates that a conviction for acts of antisemitism, racism, or other forms of inhumanity disqualifies an individual from becoming a naturalized citizen.
The ten questions to be added to the pool of 100 possible test questions reportedly include such topics as: the first Jewish community in the territory of Germany; the name of the Jewish house of prayer; the basis for Germany’s special responsibility to Israel; and the punishment for Holocaust denial among other things.
The naturalization test consists of 33 questions from the total 100, and roughly half (17 questions) must be answered correctly to pass the test.
The test is just one of several requirements for acquiring German citizenship.
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