Artigo 28 RWN Restauração do Holocausto

This entry deals with claims to Dutch nationality arising out of the wartime denationalisation of Dutch Jews between 1941 and 1945, and with what the law in force today actually offers a person in that position.

Be clear about one thing at the outset. Dutch nationality law as it stands on 25 July 2026 contains no dedicated restoration provision for that cohort among the grounds of acquisition in force. The provision often cited in this context, art 28 of the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, does something quite different: it gives a route back to women who lost Dutch nationality by or in connection with a marriage concluded before the Rijkswet came into force, on a declaration made within one year of that marriage ending. It is not a general restoration clause, and it does not turn on wartime measures.

Whether the 1941 to 1945 measures effected a loss of Dutch nationality as a matter of law, or were legally void so that nationality was never lost, is not resolved in the sources behind this entry. That distinction is not academic: it decides whether a claimant needs to reacquire nationality or simply to have an existing status recognised.

That is why the first step for most people here is not an application to acquire nationality at all. It is a petition to a court for a declaration of whether a person does or does not hold Dutch nationality, which the law provides for precisely where status is disputed and which can be brought in respect of a deceased person as well as a living one (art 17). Once status is established, the acquisition routes described below become a question of fact rather than of history.

O Artigo 28 da RWN, restauração do Holocausto, aplica-se ESTRITAMENTE aos sobreviventes diretos da desnacionalização do decreto Riess de 1941-1945 que: (i) possuíam eles próprios a nacionalidade holandesa no momento da desnacionalização; (ii) foram desnacionalizados através do Verordening 137/1941 + 67/1941 + instrumentos relacionados; (iii) sobreviveu ao Holocausto; (iv) buscar a restauração por meio de requerimento do IND. Âncora processual: aplicação do IND ao abrigo do quadro processual do artigo 28.º; Artigo 9.º, exceção de nacionalidade única através do artigo 9.º, n.º 1, alínea c), análogo da coorte de refugiados; restauração cerimonial através da publicação do Decreto Real no Staatscourant. As reivindicações de descendentes (primeira geração nascida em 1945-1980; multigeração nascida na década de 1980 até o presente) NÃO estão dentro do escopo estrito do Artigo 28 - elas devem seguir caminhos alternativos: (a) RWN Artigo 4 jus sanguinis transmissão se a nacionalidade holandesa dos pais for efetivamente contínua (o Nível 1 diz que a desnacionalização 1941-1945 como tendo QUEBRADO a cadeia de transmissão - as reivindicações de descendentes falham nesta jurisprudência ponto); (b) Artigo 6(1)(d) do RWN ex-holandês + residência de 1 ano se o próprio descendente fosse holandês e perdido; (c) Naturalização padrão 5y do Artigo 7 da RWN.

Principais afirmações marcadas com rota:

• O Artigo 28 do RWN prevê a restauração da nacionalidade holandesa para aqueles que a perderam; O escopo da restauração da desnacionalização da era do Holocausto (descendentes + gerações) requer verificação…
• RWN Artigo 28 Escopo da restauração do Holocausto: elegibilidade dos descendentes e transmissão de geração requer verificação da jurisprudência Hoge Raad …
• WUV (Wet uitkeringen vervolgingsslachtoffers 1940-1945) regime de compensação; cruza com as reivindicações de restauração do Artigo 28 RWN por meio do status de vítima reconhecido pelo WUV…

There is no single set of conditions here, because there is no single route. What follows are the conditions of the routes that actually exist.

For the declaration of status (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap art 17): an immediate interest in the question, and that the question is not already live in other proceedings. There is no residence requirement and no age requirement, and the petition may concern a person who has died. No filing deadline appears in the provision.

For the option route open to a former national (art 6(1)(f)):

• You are an adult.
• You held Dutch nationality, or the status of Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander, at some time.
• You have had at least one uninterrupted year of admission for an indefinite period, together with main residence, in the Kingdom, and still have both at the moment of confirmation. The year must be accrued as a foreign national.
• You are excluded if you lost Dutch nationality because it was withdrawn for failing to renounce another nationality after naturalisation or option, and if a pre-1 April 2003 naturalisation obtained by fraud was withdrawn from you, in which case you are treated as never having held Dutch nationality for the purposes of this ground.
• The general option conditions apply: no serious suspicions of danger to public order, morals or the security of the Kingdom (art 6(4)); willingness to make the verklaring van verbondenheid, the declaration of solidarity, in the fixed wording of art 23(2). There is no language or integration test on any option route, and no duty to give up another nationality on this one.

For naturalisation with the residence condition removed (art 8(2)): having at some time held Dutch nationality or the status of Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander removes the five-year residence requirement. It does not remove the rest of art 8(1). In particular the integration requirement in art 8(1)(d) still applies, at CEFR level A2 across reading, listening, speaking and writing (Besluit naturalisatietoets arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1), in force since 26 May 2022). Level B1 is sufficient but is not required. The good-character condition in art 9(1)(a) applies, as does the renunciation duty in art 9(1)(b), subject to the four statutory exemptions in art 9(3) and to the policy grounds on which renunciation cannot reasonably be required.

Whether a person affected by the 1941 to 1945 measures satisfies the historical limb of any of these routes is exactly the question the declaratory procedure exists to answer, and it is not resolved here.

Two evidential problems dominate a claim of this kind, and the law has something specific to say about each.

The first is that the records may not exist. Policy recognises evidentiary impossibility (bewijsnood) in defined situations, and one of them is directly on point: where the document was drawn up but the register in which it was held has been lost. The others are that such deeds were never drawn up in that country, and that an official report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has led to a decision not to require documents from a country because of the political situation. Where documents cannot be obtained for reasons of this kind, the main rule that identity and nationality be proved by a legalised or apostilled birth certificate and a valid foreign passport gives way (Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, art 7 sections 2.3.5.2 and 2.3.5.6, version in force from 1 July 2026).

The second is that a historic claim runs through other people. Where the claim depends on the nationality of a parent or an earlier generation, the authority may require historical nationality data on parents and grandparents. Evidence of former Dutch nationality typically includes an old Dutch passport, a declaration of Dutch nationality, historical population-register extracts, and consular records.

The general rules still apply. You bear the cost and the burden of obtaining, translating and legalising your documents. A document in a language other than Dutch, English, German or French must be translated by a sworn translator, preferably into Dutch, and the translation must be physically attached to the original or certified copy; on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba only Dutch and English escape the requirement. In the Netherlands an apostille is a sticker issued by the courts; the Netherlands accepts digital apostilles issued abroad but issues only paper ones. Legalisation attests the signature, the signatory's capacity and the seal, and nothing about whether the contents are correct.

Documents already legalised or apostilled and processed into the population register or a Dutch civil-status record need not be produced again unless there is well-founded doubt.

One live caveat: the legalisation circular the Handleiding instructs officials to apply lapsed on 1 January 2024, and no successor could be located as of 25 July 2026. Ask the receiving authority or the court what it currently requires before commissioning work abroad.

Work in two stages: settle the status question first, then, if nationality has genuinely to be acquired, choose an acquisition route.

Stage one, the declaration of status. A petition (verzoekschrift) is lodged with the rechtbank Den Haag, or with the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie if the person concerned lives in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten or the BES public bodies. The forum is fixed by residence, not by where the historical events occurred. The petition is open to anyone with an immediate interest, and it may be brought in respect of someone who has died, which matters where a claim runs through a parent or grandparent. The Minister is an interested party; the rechtbank hears the State, and the Gemeenschappelijk Hof hears the public prosecutor. The petition is not available while the same question is live in other proceedings. A decision that has become irrevocable binds every public body applying any statutory regulation, which is what makes this procedure worth the effort (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap arts 17 to 19).

Stage two, acquisition, if the court finds nationality was lost and not since regained.

Where the person concerned is an adult who at some time held Dutch nationality or the status of Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander, the option route requires them to be living in the Kingdom with admission for an indefinite period, and to have completed at least one uninterrupted year of that admission and main residence. Time spent as a Dutch national does not count towards that year: it must be accrued as a foreign national. This route cannot be exercised from abroad. The declaration is lodged in person with the burgemeester in the European Netherlands, the Minister through the IND unit Caribisch Nederland on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, or the Cabinet of the Governor in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The authority both handles and decides; there is no Royal Decree.

The naturalisation route runs differently. The request is lodged with the burgemeester, who investigates and advises the Minister; the IND assesses; and where the request is granted the King signs a Royal Decree on the Minister's proposal. Having held Dutch nationality at some time removes the five-year residence condition, but not the other conditions, and in particular not the integration requirement.

In both cases nationality vests only when the confirmation or the extract of the decree is handed over, in principle at a ceremony, and then backdates to the date the document bears.

The periods differ sharply between the three procedures.

A petition for a declaration of nationality. No decision period for the court is established in the sources behind this entry, and no filing deadline appears in the provision. Only cassation follows, so there is no further appeal stage to plan for.

The option route for a former national. The authority decides within 13 weeks of receiving the declaration, extendable once by at most 13 further weeks, giving a ceiling of 26 weeks (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap art 6(5)). The clock starts only once the fee has been paid or fully waived and any requested documents supplied. Handover must follow within nine weeks of the finding that conditions are met, and a confirmation not made known within one year of the date it bears lapses by operation of law (Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap arts 60a(7) and 60a(11)). Note that the qualifying year of indefinite admission and main residence runs before any of this begins.

Naturalisation. The decision must be taken within one year, running from the latest of payment of the fee, the decision fully waiving payment, or receipt of the requested supplementation; and the decision may be held at most twice for six months, giving an outer limit of two years (art 9(4)). Policy makes the trigger precise: the year starts only once all documents necessary for assessment have been received. After the Royal Decree, the applicant must be summoned within six weeks of the decree's date and the handover must take place within six weeks of the summons; the decree lapses if the extract is not made known within one year of its date (Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap arts 60b(2), 60b(7) and 60b(11)).

Actual naturalisation performance, as opposed to the legal deadline: the time experienced by applicants from filing at the municipality to the ceremony fell from 344 days in 2018 to 182 days in 2024; the municipal stage took 13 days in 2024, the IND stage 95 days for granted cases, and the Kabinet van de Koning 18 days (IND, Monitor Naturalisatie en Optie 2018-2024, June 2025, Table 6). The share of granted requests reaching a ceremony within a year of filing over 2018 to 2024 was 82 percent in the European Netherlands and 77 percent at diplomatic posts. For option, no processing-time series is published anywhere in the Kingdom.

On a historic claim the binding constraint is usually none of these. It is the time taken to locate records, which sits outside every statutory period because the decision clocks do not start until the file is complete.

What you pay depends entirely on which procedure your claim runs through.

A petition for a declaration of nationality. The Rijkswet sets no fee. On the ordinary civil tariff a petition of unspecified value at the rechtbank costs €341 for a natural person, €93 for a person of limited means and €735 for a legal person in 2026 (Stcrt. 2025, 39855, in force 1 January 2026). The classification of a nationality-determination petition under that tariff line is not expressly established in a source, so treat the figure as indicative and confirm it with the court. If the matter goes to cassation, the 2026 fee for a petition of unspecified value at the Hoge Raad is €386 for a natural person and €932 for a legal person.

The option route for a former national. The ordinary option fee applies: €241 single, €412 joint, €27 per minor child included, in the European Netherlands (2026 schedule; WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825, in force 1 January 2026). Aruba Afl. 501, Afl. 857, Afl. 56 (WBN-A 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31841); Curaçao and Sint Maarten Cg 502, Cg 858, Cg 56 (WBN-CM 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31847); Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba US$282, US$481, US$32 (WBN-BES 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31842), all in force 1 January 2026.

Naturalisation. In the European Netherlands, €1,139 for a single standard application, €1,454 for a joint one, and €168 for each co-naturalising child (2026 schedule; WBN 2025/3). A reduced tariff of €847 single and €1,163 joint applies to stateless applicants and to holders of an asylum residence permit. Aruba Afl. 2,368 single standard; Curaçao and Sint Maarten Cg 2,373; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba US$1,331.

A related residence-permit charge exists for readmission connected with the declaratory procedure, at €254 for a first application and €254 for an extension (IND fee page, accessed 25 July 2026). That is a residence permit, not the nationality petition.

In both nationality procedures the fee must be paid within six weeks of receipt of the declaration or request, failing which it is set aside without being handled (Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 art 6), and it must be paid in one instalment. Discretionary waivers exist for a minor filing independently, for a person wrongly treated as Dutch for over a year through official error, and, for naturalisation only, on grounds of state interest or merit to the state (art 4(2)).

Disregard the amounts printed in the consolidated fee decree, which still shows 2011 base figures such as €789 for a single naturalisation. They are not payable.

Nationality throughout the Kingdom is governed by the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, a Kingdom act resting on art 3(1)(c) of the Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, which lists nationality among the affairs of the Kingdom. The consolidated text has been in force since 1 October 2023 and carries no amendment since (as of 25 July 2026).

The provisions that bear on a claim of this kind are these.

Art 17 provides the declaratory procedure. Anyone with an immediate interest, outside proceedings already pending, may petition the rechtbank Den Haag, or the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie if resident in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten or the BES public bodies, for a declaration that they do or do not possess Dutch nationality. Such a petition may also be made in respect of a deceased person (art 17(2)). The Minister is an interested party and the court hears the State (art 18(1)). Only cassation lies against the decision (art 18(2)). Once irrevocable, the decision binds every body charged with executing any statutory regulation (art 19). Courts may seek the Minister's advice, and administrative-appeal bodies must stay their proceedings, where nationality is uncertain (art 20).

Art 6(1)(f) provides the option route for a former national. An adult who at any time held Dutch nationality, or the status of Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander, may acquire it by declaration after at least one uninterrupted year of admission for an indefinite period and main residence in the Kingdom.

Art 8(2) provides the naturalisation route. The five-year residence condition in art 8(1)(c) does not apply to a person who has at some time held Dutch nationality or the status of Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander. The other conditions of art 8(1), including the integration requirement in art 8(1)(d), continue to apply.

Art 28 provides the pre-Rijkswet marriage route, for women who lost Dutch nationality by or in connection with a marriage concluded before the Rijkswet entered into force, on a declaration made within one year of the dissolution of that marriage or within one year of being able to learn of it, with acquisition retroactive to the date of dissolution.

Art 6(1)(p) provides the disproportionate-loss restoration route, but only for loss that occurred by operation of law and that also removed EU citizenship, which confines it to losses occurring on or after 1 November 1993.

Procedure for the option routes is in the Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap, in force since 1 March 2017. Fees rest on the Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002, indexed annually under its art 9. Binding administrative policy is the Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, version in force from 1 July 2026.

No instrument specific to the 1941 to 1945 denationalisation measures is established in the sources behind this entry, and none should be assumed to exist or not to exist on the strength of this page alone.

ID da fonte	Citação

Contagem de pinos: 4.

Which remedy applies depends on which procedure produced the outcome, and the two are not interchangeable.

Against a court's decision on a petition for a declaration of nationality, only cassation to the Hoge Raad lies. There is no appeal to a court of second instance (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap art 18(2)). The compensating advantage is that once the decision is irrevocable it binds every body charged with executing any statutory regulation (art 19).

Against a refusal to confirm an option declaration, or a refusal of naturalisation, the ordinary administrative chain applies. In the European Netherlands:

1. Objection (bezwaar) to the authority that decided, within six weeks of the day after notification (Algemene wet bestuursrecht arts 6:7 and 6:8), free of charge (art 7:15(1)), with a right to be heard (art 7:2) and a full reconsideration of the decision rather than a legality check (art 7:11). Decision within six weeks, or twelve where an advisory committee is involved, extendable once by six weeks (art 7:10). For a naturalisation refusal the IND states the same six weeks, extendable by six.
2. Appeal (beroep) to the rechtbank within six weeks; court fee €200 for a natural person in 2026 (art 8:41(2)(b); Stcrt. 2025, 39855, in force 1 January 2026). If you have no residence in the Netherlands, the competent court is that of the seat of the deciding authority (art 8:7(2)) - which matters on a claim brought from abroad.
3. Further appeal (hoger beroep) to the Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State within six weeks; fee €297 for a natural person (art 8:109(1)(b)).

Worst case in court fees, 2026: €497, excluding legal representation.

Standard of review. On domestic refusal grounds the courts are deferential: very great restraint is required before departing from the applicable policy standards, though departure is required where only that yields a correct application of the law (ABRvS 20 June 2018, ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:2056). A decision holding a naturalisation request rather than deciding it is itself open to challenge.

Outside the European Netherlands the Algemene wet bestuursrecht does not apply. Curaçao and Sint Maarten operate their own Landsverordening administratieve rechtspraak, with six-week deadlines, a court fee of NAf 150 and double that on further appeal to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie. Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba apply the Wet administratieve rechtspraak BES: appeal within six weeks to the Gerecht in eerste aanleg, court fee US$84 (arts 16(1) and 17(1), in force since 1 August 2018). For Aruba the Gemeenschappelijk Hof publishes six-week deadlines with court fees of AWG 25 and AWG 75.

You are a descendant rather than the person denationalised. Everything then turns on whether the chain of transmission was broken, and that is precisely the question the declaratory procedure is designed to answer. It can be brought in respect of a deceased person, so a claim can be tested at the generation where the doubt actually sits rather than at your own.

You assume art 28 is the restoration provision. It is not. It applies to women who lost Dutch nationality by or in connection with a marriage concluded before the Rijkswet came into force, and it carries a short deadline: the declaration must be made within one year of the dissolution of that marriage, or within one year of being able to learn of the dissolution. Where it does apply, acquisition is retroactive to the date of dissolution. Do not build a wartime-restoration claim on it.

You hope the disproportionate-loss restoration route applies. It does not reach losses this old. That ground requires that EU citizenship was lost along with Dutch nationality, which confines it to losses occurring on or after 1 November 1993.

You are living abroad and want to reacquire without moving. The option route for former nationals cannot be exercised from abroad: it requires admission for an indefinite period plus main residence in the Kingdom, and one uninterrupted year of both, accrued as a foreign national. The naturalisation route removes the five-year residence condition for a former national but not the other conditions, including the language and civic-integration requirement.

The language requirement surprises people. For naturalisation it is CEFR level A2 in reading, listening, speaking and writing, and it applies even to someone who was never subject to the civic-integration obligation. Exemptions granted under the civic-integration legislation do not automatically carry over into the naturalisation procedure. A waiver is possible on medical or intellectual grounds, or on demonstrated but unsuccessful effort, which in its main form means at least three attempts plus 600 hours of tuition with a certified provider.

Renunciation. Naturalisation carries a duty to do what is possible to lose your other nationality (art 9(1)(b)), with four statutory exemptions: nationals covered by the Second Protocol arrangements, applicants born in the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao or Sint Maarten and resident there at the time of the application, applicants married to a Dutch national, and recognised refugees (art 9(3)). The option routes carry no such duty, except for one ground that is not in play here.

Records destroyed in the war. Loss of the register in which a deed was held is a recognised ground of evidentiary impossibility, which displaces the ordinary requirement of a legalised birth certificate.

A proposal to extend the general naturalisation residence term from five to ten years exists but had not been submitted to parliament as of 25 July 2026. It is not law.

Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023: art 6(1)(f) on the former-national option route, art 6(1)(p) on restoration after disproportionate automatic loss, art 6(4) and 6(5), art 8(1) and 8(2) on the naturalisation conditions and the residence waiver for former nationals, art 9 on refusal and renunciation, arts 17 to 20 on the declaratory procedure and its effects, art 23(2) on the declaration of solidarity, and art 28 on women who lost nationality through a pre-Rijkswet marriage. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0003738/2023-10-01

Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, arts 1, 2 and 3(1)(c). https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002154

Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap, in force since 1 March 2017: arts 2, 3 and 6 on filing and evidence, arts 33 to 38 on the naturalisation sequence in the European Netherlands, art 60a on option handover and art 60b on naturalisation handover, including the six-week summons, the six-week handover window and the one-year lapse. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013605

Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, binding policy, version in force from 1 July 2026: art 7 section 2.3.5.2 on passports and substitutes, section 2.3.5.3 on civil-status documents, section 2.3.5.5 on translation and legalisation, section 2.3.5.6 on evidentiary impossibility including loss of the register; art 8(1)(d) sections 6.2 and 6.3 on the integration requirement, its exemptions and waivers; art 9 sections 3 and 4 on good character and renunciation. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBW33099

Besluit naturalisatietoets, in force since 26 May 2022, arts 2, 3, 4 and 5, fixing the naturalisation language level at CEFR A2 across four skills. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013604/2022-05-26

Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002, consolidated text in force since 1 January 2011, arts 2 to 9. The amounts printed there are 2011 base amounts and are not payable. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013782

Besluit WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825, in force 1 January 2026 (European Netherlands 2026 tariffs). https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2025-31825.html With WBN-A 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31841; WBN-CM 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31847; WBN-BES 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31842.

Regeling indexering, Stcrt. 2025, 39855, in force 1 January 2026, setting the 2026 administrative court fees and the civil griffierecht table. https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2025-39855.html

Algemene wet bestuursrecht, version in force from 1 July 2026. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0005537

IND, Monitor Naturalisatie en Optie 2018-2024, June 2025, Table 6 and Table 7 on processing times. https://ind.nl/nl/documenten/07-2025/monitor-naturalisatie-en-optie-2018-2024.pdf

IND, Leges: kosten van een aanvraag, accessed 25 July 2026. https://ind.nl/nl/leges-kosten-van-een-aanvraag

Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State, 20 June 2018, ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:2056. https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:2056