Germany over the weekend reinstated the citizenship of a 101-year-old Israeli woman, 84 years after it was revoked by the Nazis.
German Ambassador to Israel Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer and German Consul Dr. Lars-Uwe Kettner arrived on Saturday at Edith Ramon's home to deliver her passport in person.
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101-year-old Edith Ramon (sitting, left) receives her German citizenship back after 84 years
(Photo: German Embassy in Israel)
"It is a very great honor for us that Edith wants to become a German citizen again and that is why we came to her," said Ambassador Wasum-Rainer.
An excited Ramon asked the German envoy whether they were friends now, to which she replied, "of course we're friends, what an honor to return citizenship to an impressive woman as yourself, here in Israel."
Ramon (nee Nachman) was born in Germany in 1920 and lived in the southern town of Rastatt.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Ramon's mother, Elsa, recognized the imminent danger the new regime was posing to them after the family car was set on fire in a suspected anti-Semitic attack.
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German Ambassador to Israel Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer
(Photo: German Embassy in Israel)
Ramon immigrated to Israel in 1937 and began working in agriculture upon her arrival in the country. Her parents also joined her soon after, settling in Gedera.
Ramon then moved to Tel Aviv and worked in housekeeping to help support her parents. She later became one of the founding members of Kibbutz Gesher, where she met her husband Moshe who also immigrated from Germany.
One of Ramon's grandchildren, who resides in England, decided following Brexit to check whether she was eligible to get her German citizenship back under an amendment to the German constitution, which allows people born in Germany whose citizenship was revoked by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945 to regain it.