Deported as a successor-state citizen, or stateless
Case 4 is Case 3 for everyone who was not Austrian on paper. It reaches the very large number of people who had lived in Vienna for decades while still holding Hungarian, Czechoslovak or Polish citizenship, or holding none at all, and who were deported.
Because it does not have Austrian citizenship to anchor it, the Austrian Citizenship Act asks for something in its place: a main home in Austria. That is the limb Case 3 does not have.
| Ancestor’s citizenship | Successor-state citizen, or stateless |
|---|---|
| Residence in Austria | A main home in Austria before 9 May 1945 |
| What happened | Deported out of Austria |
| Cut-off date | 9 May 1945 |
The statutory text
A descendant in direct line of an individual
- who had been:
- a citizen of one of the successor states of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; or
- a stateless person;
- who had his/her primary residence in Austria before 9 May 1945; and
- who was deported out of Austria:
- by organs of the NSDAP (i.e., the National Socialist German Workers' Party) or the authorities of the German Reich
- or because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria.
The words above are sec. 58c(2)(3) of the Austrian Citizenship Act. Read sec. 58c in full
What each limb means
“Who had been a citizen of one of the successor states of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, or a stateless person”
The Austrian Citizenship Act does not name the successor states; the official guidance lists them as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Poland, Romania, Italy, and the Ukraine. Statelessness counts equally — and a great many people who had lost or never held a citizenship after 1918 were stateless without a document ever saying so plainly.
“Who had his/her primary residence in Austria before 9 May 1945”
This is the limb Case 3 does not carry. Being deported out of Austria implies living there, and in practice the deportation record and the registration record are found together — but the Austrian Citizenship Act asks for the residence, so the file has to prove it rather than infer it.
“Who was deported out of Austria by organs of the NSDAP or the authorities of the German Reich, or because of his/her advocacy for the democratic Republic of Austria”
The same limb as Case 3, and the same records answer it. Note that this case sets no date on the deportation itself; the residence limb is what carries the 9 May 1945 date.
What this case turns on
Sec. 58c(2)(3) requires a main home in Austria before 9 May 1945. Being deported out of Austria implies it, but the registration record is what proves it. If the citizenship turns out to have been Austrian after all, Case 3 applies instead and no residence is required — so the citizenship document is worth chasing first, because it can remove a whole limb.
That you are descended from him/her in a direct line
- Your birth certificate, and the birth and marriage certificates of every person in the chain between you and him/her.
- Where a surname changed, the marriage certificate that changed it.
- For an adoption, the adoption order — and note that Austria set the age of majority at 21 until 1973 and 19 until 2001, so whether an adoption counts turns on the year.
Which citizenship your ancestor held before March 1938
- Old passports and travel papers.
- A citizenship certificate — Heimatschein or Staatsbürgerschaftsnachweis.
- The right-of-domicile record (Heimatrecht / Zuständigkeit) of the home municipality.
- For statelessness, a Nansen passport or an alien’s registration.
Why your ancestor was at risk
- IKG Vienna community records; Yad Vashem; the Arolsen Archives.
- Restitution and compensation files — Opferfürsorge, Hilfsfonds, Nationalfonds, Claims Conference.
- The 1938 property declarations (Vermögensanmeldung).
- For the political limb: party, Schutzbund or trade-union records, and police or court files.
Whether your ancestor was deported out of Austria
- The deportation database of the DÖW.
- The transport lists — Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Maly Trostinec, Riga.
- The Arolsen Archives; Yad Vashem; the IKG files.
Where your ancestor had his/her main home, and when
- Vienna or other municipal registration records (Meldezettel).
- The 1938 census of the Jewish community (IKG).
- The 1938 property declarations.
- Address books; school, tax or employment records.
Whether you have ever held Austrian citizenship yourself
- Any Austrian passport, citizenship certificate or registration among the family papers — people are sometimes citizens without ever knowing it.
- The naturalisation record of the country whose citizenship you took, and its date.
- Sec. 58c(5) keeps the route open for a person who did not know he/she was an Austrian citizen when he/she acquired the other citizenship, so what was known at the time matters as much as the dates.
How this case differs from the ones next to it
Case 3 — Deported — Austrian citizen
Same event, Austrian citizenship instead — and no residence limb to prove. If the papers turn out to show Austrian citizenship, the file gets simpler, not harder.
Case 6 — Perished — successor state or stateless
Case 6 has the same citizenship and residence limbs but a different ending: the ancestor did not survive. Where a deportation ended in death, both cases may be open at once.