I’ll Soon Be Austrian

I’m heading to Austria, where my son and I will become dual citizens. By coincidence, approval of our applications occurred just before a planned trip for my son’s participation in a geography competition. Therefore, we’ll get our Bescheide (notifications) in a government office in Vienna rather than at the Austrian Consulate in New York; receiving those documents will make our citizenship official.

This will make us dual citizens, something Austria historically has rarely allowed, but for which the country extended eligibility in 2019 to direct descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis, as my father was. We won’t be giving up U.S. citizenship, though I did sign, for myself and my son, declarations that we’re not applying or planning for additional citizenships beyond the U.S. and Austria, or to serve in the armed forces of any third country (those steps would entail giving up Austrian citizenship).

There’s no language requirement for Austrian citizenship if one receives it as a descendant of a persecuted person. However, my son and I both are studying German; he recently returned from Waldsee, an excellent German-language camp run by Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota, where I attended with him two years ago. I’ve been using Duolingo, as of this writing with a “streak” of 635 days, though that number allows for some “streak freezes” giving leeway for missing a day on the app.

My German draws somewhat on childhood memories of my father occasionally speaking it, or my mother speaking a mix of German and English with her mother (born in Germany) and siblings. However, like my (conversant) Spanish and (minimal) French, my German could be better, given the youthful opportunities I had to develop skills in all these languages through family connections, school and travel.

An email from Austria informing us that our applications were successful happened to arrive on the Fourth of July, and I looked closely to make sure the attached declaration forms didn’t involve renouncing U.S. citizenship. I’ll never do that. To my mind, gaining Austrian citizenship is desirable for several reasons. One is as a symbolic gesture; my father and family shouldn’t have been forced into exile, let alone what happened to the extended family that didn’t get out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Another is the opportunity opened to live and work in Austria and throughout the E.U., a practical benefit presumably more likely to be used by my son than by me, though not ruled out for any of us. (My wife is eligible for Austrian citizenship if we live in Austria, maintaining a “continuous household,” for six years.)

There’s the additional possibility that the U.S. will become politically oppressive or unstable such that having a place to go will become imperative. It seems increasingly common that Americans are interested in having some kind of “exit strategy,” considered more seriously than in earlier election cycles where celebrities and others spoke of leaving the U.S. if their party didn’t win. This has included not only Democrats despairing at the possibility of a second Trump administration, but also Jews raising alarms about anti-Semitic “pro-Palestinian” riots in the U.S. (and in some cases blaming these on Joe Biden, notwithstanding that those same rioters call him “Genocide Joe” for his support for Israel).

Striking a balance between under-reaction and over-reaction to threats is a challenge of our times. I’m shocked by the Supreme Court’s decision giving presidents absolute immunity for crimes committed in their core constitutional duties, presumptive immunity for other official acts (to be defined on the fly by the Court, in a judicial power grab) and even some protection to unofficial acts, by barring prosecutors from using evidence or considering motives related to official acts. I hope a future Supreme Court or constitutional amendment will rectify this disgrace; I’ll welcome that day as a U.S. citizen.

—Follow Kenneth Silber on X: @kennethsilber