Author Thomas Harding is in the process of doing what the descendants of many Holocaust victims would find unimaginable: applying for a German passport.

When Britain voted to leave the European Union in June, the 48-year-old had to make a decision that was never necessary before the referendum - should he request the restoration of German citizenship stripped from his family by the Third Reich? He needed only a few hours to make up his mind.

“This is more than the practical, this is also about something for us, or for me, it's about something spiritual, it's about reconciliation,’’ he said. “It's about acknowledging the truth of the horrors of the past but also about trying to build a better future together, and as a European, that's what I hope to do."

It is one of the complicated realities of the UK’s pending divorce from the EU that many Britons whose ancestors came from other parts of Europe are claiming citizenship in other member states so they can retain ties to the Continent. Inquiries about passports are up at the German, Austrian, French and Polish embassies.

Some want to retain the ability to travel easily from country to country or maintain business ties. Others just want to be part of the European Union.

But for Jews whose families fled Germany to escape Adolf Hitler, the decision means re-examining long-held beliefs about history and the country that once persecuted them.

The children and grandchildren of Jewish refugees are taking advantage of a law that allows the descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis to regain the citizenship that was stripped from them in the 1930s and 1940s. More than 400 Britons have sought information about the law since the June 23 referendum, and German authorities have received at least 100 formal applications, compared with about 20 annually in recent years.

Michael Newman, chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, said Brexit has fuelled interest in German citizenship, but it’s hard to know how many people will actually apply. Jews are now able to consider such a step because Germany has made huge strides in addressing the past, creating a culture of remembrance, he said.

“No amount of blood money or memorials will satisfy or suffice for some people but in terms of addressing its past and owning up to it and looking into things, it's done much that many other countries haven't,’’ said Newman.

Many of those seeking restoration of their citizenship don’t intend to live in Germany, but want the freedom to travel and work in EU nations.

Ben Lewis, a 49-year-old documentary filmmaker, is among those who would like to regain German citizenship.

Lewis, whose film and production company has worked for years on the continent, sees the potential of Brexit as an abomination, particularly the anti-immigrant sentiment that influenced many people to vote to leave.

“I just want to take a firm stance, a documented stance etched in acid on stone, that I object to Brexit," he said.

The decision for many might have been prompted by Brexit, but had been years in the making for some. Harding, for one, has long been coming to terms with his German past, a journey documented in part in his book, “The House by the Lake.’’

The way Harding sees it, Germany is now showing leadership by taking in over a million refugees.

As the result of the EU referendum became clear on the morning of June 24, Harding was on the phone to the German embassy to inquire about citizenship.

It’s logical, he says, for Jews to cling to the EU, which was created to build international links that would make another European war impossible.

“It was much less about saying goodbye to Britain than saying hello to Europe," he said.

London - 5 October 2016

1. Pan down from German and European Union flags to entrance of German Embassy in London

2. Various of flags

3. Mid of author Thomas Harding sitting on grass looking at passport that belonged to his German Jewish grandfather

4. Close of Harding's face

5. Various of passport

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Harding, author, in the process of applying for restoration of German passport following Brexit vote:

"This is more than the practical, this is also about something for us, or for me, it's about something spiritual, it's about reconciliation. It's about acknowledging the truth of the horrors of the past but also about trying to build a better future together, and as a European, that's what I hope to do."

7. Cutaway passport and photo of Harding's grandparents

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Thomas Harding, author, in the process of applying for restoration of German passport following Brexit vote:

"I think what has happened to me is I have become much more open towards Germany and at the same time following Brexit, I realised that there was going to be a very real loss. It was likely that me and my family would be unable to live and work in 27 countries in Europe and given the fact that I didn't have to give up my British passport, I didn't have to live in Germany by necessity or learn German, show I could speak German, it didn't seem like there was anything to lose and so for me, it was much less about saying goodbye to Britain than saying hello to Europe."

9. Harding flicking through passport

10. Mid of exhibit of Jewish Museum in London

11. Soft focus, yellow star that Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany

12. Set up of documentary maker Ben Lewis

13. Close of Lewis looking at museum exhibit

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Lewis, documentary maker, in the process of applying for restoration of German passport following Brexit vote:

"Well, it was immediately after Brexit I thought the restoration of German citizenship was something that I wanted, because before Brexit I was part of the EU anyway. I was a European, I was deeply engaged in German culture from the age of 14 when I first started learning German, and in a way my whole life was orientated around creating links around rebuilding, if you like, as a Jew, links between myself, in Britain and German culture."

15. Cutaway hands

16. SOUNDBITE (English) Ben Lewis, documentary maker, in the process of applying for restoration of German passport following Brexit vote:

"I have many motivations for wanting to get German citizenship. I am thinking a lot about my child, I want him to have the same advantages in life that I had, you know, to be able to play on a European field. I've worked all over Europe in my life. I love Berlin - I could imagine living there. Perhaps that would happen in the future. And I just want to take a firm stance, a documented stance, something etched in acid on stone, that I object to Brexit."

17. Set up shot of Michael Newman, chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees

18. Newman typing

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Newman, chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees:

"Well I think this is uppermost in the minds of the government that they are not going to walk away from any post Holocaust responsibilities and I think most people would look at what Germany has done since the Second World War in terms of addressing its past, the culture of remembrance, the educational resources, it's committed to teaching about the holocaust and see that what it has done has been leading the way and if you look at issues like restitution, archive, opening archives, documentation centres, even opening and creating museums, they are, they're leading the way in many respects in dealing with their history. It remains of course very subjective because no amount of blood, money or memorials will satisfy or suffice for some people but in terms of addressing its past and owning up to it and looking into things, it's done much that many other countries haven't."

20. Wide of German Embassy entrance for public

21. Close of entrance

22. Sign reading 'Welcome' in German and English

The UK's imminent exit from the EU is making Britons from diverse communities apply for citizenship in European countries - including some whose continental roots are linked to a deeply traumatic history.

Simon Wallfisch grew up in London as the grandson of an Auschwitz survivor who swore to never return to the country that murdered her parents and six million other Jews.

But more than 70 years after the Holocaust, Wallfisch and thousands of other Jews in Britain have been applying for restoration of German citizenship which was stripped from their ancestors by the Nazis during the Third Reich.

Their surprising decision was triggered by Brexit - the impending withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

The country is scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, and among other things, Britons stand to lose the privileges of free movement and work across the 28-nation bloc that they have enjoyed for the last decades.

"This nationalistic movement that has led to this disaster that we call Brexit, has led me to just finding a way to secure my future and my children's future," said Wallfisch, a well-known classical singer and cellist, who received his German passport in October.

"In order to remain European, I've taken the German citizenship," he said.

Many Britons, whose ancestors came from other parts of Europe, have tried claiming citizenship in other EU member states so they can retain ties to the continent.

But for Jews whose families fled Germany to escape the Nazis, the decision meant re-examining long-held beliefs about the country that once persecuted them.

Wallfisch's grandmother Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was 18 years old when in December 1943 she was deported to Auschwitz, the Nazi-run death camp in occupied Poland where more than one million Jews were murdered.

She survived because she was a member of the camp's girls' orchestra.

As a cellist, she had to play classical music while the other Jews were taken to the gas chambers.

In November 1944, she was taken to the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, where she was eventually liberated by the British Army in April 1945.

Lasker-Wallfisch migrated to Great Britain in 1946, got married and had two children.

Her career as a famous cello player took her around the world, but it was decades before she overcame her hatred and set foot on German soil again.

Only in recent years has Lasker-Wallfisch, now 93, become a regular visitor, educating children in Germany about the Holocaust.

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday, Lasker-Wallfisch, her grandson Simon and her daughter Maya Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch performed for the first time together on stage at the Jewish Museum Berlin in commemoration of their family.

They played music with other members of their extended family and read letters from the past as a tribute to those who survived and those who perished in the Shoah.

Before the start of the show, the three generations were sitting next to each other on a red couch in the museum's dressing room, discussing their reasons for reclaiming the German nationality.

"We cannot be victims of our past, we have to have some hope for change," said Maya Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch, a 60-year-old London psychotherapist who has also applied for a German passport.

"I feel somehow in a strange way triumphant. Something is coming full circle."

Her application is one of more than 3,380 requests for repatriation that the German Embassy in London has received since the Brexit referendum in June 2016.

In comparison, only about 20 such requests were made annually in the years before Brexit.

The applicants are taking advantage of Article 116 of the German constitution that allows the descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis to regain the citizenship that was removed from them between 1933 and 1945.

For many Jews who are seeking restoration of their citizenship, the passport comes in handy because it retains their ability to travel easily from country to country, maintain business ties or simply makes sure they remain a part of Europe.

But Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch says there are other, more emotional reasons for her getting back German citizenship.

"I feel an aliveness here (in Berlin) that I have not experienced before, but it totally makes sense because after all I am German," she said adding that if the country where all these cruelties against Jews and other minorities were planned and executed is now a country that welcomes the descendants of the victims, "that's a good thing".

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, the Holocaust survivor, has a more sober and pessimistic view of life.

"Jewish people never feel secure ... even with your German nationality," she said to her daughter and grandson, reminding them of her own past. "I had German nationality; it did not buy security."

Berlin - 28 January 2019

1. Simon Wallfisch cleaning his cello

2. Various of Wallfisch rehearsing

3. Concert at Jewish museum

4. Wallfisch playing

5. Simon Wallfisch together with his aunt Maya Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch and grandmother Anita Lasker-Wallfisch

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Simon Wallfisch, Grandson of Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch:

"This nationalistic movement that has led to this disaster that we call Brexit, has led me to just finding a way to secure my future and my children's future. In order to remain European, I've taken the German citizenship."

7. Tilt up of Maya Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch

8. Wide of concert

9. Maya Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch in audience

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Maya Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch, Daughter of Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch:

"We cannot be victims of our past. We have to have some hope for change. I feel somehow in a strange way triumphant. Something is coming full circle."

11. Various of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch in audience and on stage

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Auschwitz survivor:

"But because Jewish people never feel secure, and even with your German nationality, I had German nationality, you did not buy security."

13. Maya Jacobs Lasker-Wallfisch, Simon Wallfisch, at table

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Simon Wallfisch, Grandson of Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch:

"Great Britain has an illness and they are choosing the wrong medicine to cure it. Leaving the EU will not cure the deep, deep problems that are in our society. So maybe what has to happen is that they have to leave. Things have to get worse and then they will think, 'well, that didn't work, let's maybe actually now work on what the problem is'."

15. Lasker-Wallfisch family members on stage

16. Audience clapping

17. Simon Wallfisch and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch on stage

18. Simon Wallfisch and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch leaving stage