Huge rise in number of Britons applying for German passport and most are descendants of Nazi victims

More and more Britons are applying for German passports because of Brexit, figures show.

And the majority of applications comes from people who were persecuted by the Nazis or their descendants.

The figures have been released by the German government.

They show that of the 3,731 applications received since Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the vast majority comes from former German citizens or their descendants.

A total of 3,408 people referred to the German Constitution’s Article 116.

Under that law, former German citizens who were deprived of citizenship on ‘political, racial, or religious grounds’ — and their descendants — are entitled to have citizenship restored.

It is a remarkable reversal of history. Tens of thousands of Jews fled Germany for the UK before and during World War II.

Among those who left were some 10,000 children who were evacuated as part of the so-called ‘Kindertransport’ between December 1938 and August 1939, in the run-up to the start of the World War Two.

Most of those who left never saw their families again after leaving Nazi Germany.

The huge increase in applications is noticeable for its timing.

In 2015, there were just 59 applications.

And in 2016, the year the UK Brexit vote took place, there were still only 760 applications for a German passport.

However, by 2017 that number had increased to 1,824 applied.

A further 1,147 applied in the first eight months of 2018.

The figures were published by the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper group.

The number of Britons already living in Germany has also increased since the Brexit vote.

In total, 2,865 Britons living in Germany were granted German citizenship in 2016 – which represented a 361 percent increase over the previous year.

Britain is due to leave the European Union in March 2019, though negotiations are continuing to see what kind of deal, if any, the UK will leave with.