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Austria's newest citizens reclaim birthright stolen by the Nazis AFP 1 hr ago AFP © OLIVIER DOULIERY A law which took effect in September has made it possible for Holocaust victims' descendants to gain Austrian citizenship Even if they rarely speak German and some have never set foot on Austrian soil, nearly 76 years after the Holocaust, descendants of those forced out of Austria by the Nazis are reclaiming the nationality stolen from their ancestors.  "It was very important for me," says 17-year-old American high school student Maya Hofstetter, who wants to piece togeth...

Their stories begin with snippets of history passed down through their family trees. The forced exile of Maya Hofstetter’s great-grandmother Stella Rinde Coburn began in August 1939, the year after Austria’s annexation by Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Gershon’s grandfather Eric Otto also left. “He didn’t want to leave Austria. It wasn’t his decision,” says the 46-year-old sales director for Israel’s national carrier, El Al. “When he was 13 years old in 1938, his parents put him on a ship to Palestine,” he says. Only after World War II did Otto learn that his family had die...