Hi All, I’m trying to find my Great grand mother who was born in Ostrów Wielkopolski
(former Prussia), she was born 05/09/1870 her name was Amalia(Malka) Haim/Hain or any other version.
Her father was Michael Haim(born in 20/03/1836) in Pleschen and her mom’s name was Friederike Heim née Kayser(Raiser).
Any help will be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
Michael
Hi All, I’m trying to find my Great grand mother who was born in Ostrów Wielkopolski
(former Prussia), she was born 05/09/1870 her name was Amalia(Malka) Haim/Hain or any other version.
Her father was Michael Haim(born in 20/03/1836) in Pleschen and her mom’s name was Friederike Heim née Kayser(Raiser).
Any help will be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
Michael
Following up on my earlier thread and after collecting more info, I’ll appreciate the forum’s insights and knowledge:
**The facts, short version:**
- Great-grandmother Amalia, b. 1870 Ostrowo, Province of Posen — German by birth. Lost German citizenship in 1900 by marrying Hersz Stein, a Russian subject from Kalisz.
- Their son Michał, b. 1906 Kalisz — my grandfather. Jewish family, German-speaking household per his sister's later sworn testimony.
- Kalisz annexed into the Warthegau, October 1939. Michał and his father both deregistered from their Kalisz address on 14 December 1939, "in unknown direction" — the last day of the organised expulsion of Kalisz Jews.
- Arolsen/ITS documents the rest: Tarnów ghetto from 1940, Płaszów from September 1942, escaped August 1944, DP camp Pocking afterwards.
**Current theory:** target ancestor is Michał (not Amalia — her 1900 loss leaves a 33-year causation gap), ground is Nr. 2, on the basis that he'd have been a realistic Volksliste/DVL candidate in annexed Kalisz but was excluded because he was classified as Jewish.
**Where I keep getting stuck — five questions:**
Has anyone here actually seen Nr. 2 **granted** for a Jewish applicant excluded from the Volksliste? An actual BVA decision, not a theory. If so, what did the successful evidence look like?
**The circularity.** DVL classification ran on ancestry under the Nuremberg framework, not language or self-identification — Jewish ancestry excluded you regardless of how German the family was. So does "he'd have qualified but for being Jewish" fit Nr. 2's text, or fight it? Is there a framing that works, or is this just the known weak point?
**Timing.** DVL arrives in the Warthegau around October 1939; Michał is gone by 14 December. Is a two-month window enough for him to have been "excluded from" a naturalisation that was realistically available — or does that gap sink it?
**Why Nr. 2 over Nr. 3b?** Nr. 3b doesn't require establishing deutscher Volkszugehöriger status — only that a naturalisation otherwise possible was categorically closed. Is there a reason to prefer Nr. 2, or is 3b worth a serious look?
Separately — anyone dealt with **Wiedereinbürgerung** as a route for a former German woman who lost citizenship by marriage pre-1933? Was that realistically available after 1933 (consular channels, from abroad), and if it was racially closed, does that exclusion engage Nr. 3b in its own right?
Happy to share document details if useful. Genuinely looking for what's wrong with this and if my case is possible.
Thanks in a million!
My great-great-grandmother Amalia Hejm was born 1870 in Ostrowo, Province of Posen, Prussia. In 1900 she married a Russian Imperial subject in Kalisz, automatically losing her German citizenship under the nationality law then in force. The 1900 marriage register explicitly describes her as “daughter of the city of Ostrowo in Prussia.”
The loss was NOT persecution-driven — routine consequence of marrying a foreigner. The argument is that it became irreparable after 1933: as a Jewish woman, Amalia was permanently excluded from recovering German citizenship. The 11th Ordinance (1941) formally stripped citizenship from Jews abroad.
Her grandson survived KZ Płaszów. I am his great-grandson, applying under §15 StAG from Spain.
Has anyone seen the BVA accept or reject a §15 No. 1 claim where the citizenship loss predates 1933 but NS persecution made recovery impossible?
§15 No. 4 deprioritized — Kalisz was outside 1937 borders.
Thank you!