Forum Poland

[francophile]

Hi all,
I would appreciate some guidance from anyone who has experience of retrieving this type of information.
I have recently submitted my confirmation of Polish citizenship to my local consulate.
The processing office in Warsaw has come back with a letter saying that I need to provide documents proving if my grandfather ever acquired or lost german citizenship.

I would like to know if there is anywhere that I can check this ?
Without going into too much detail about the application I am confirming based on my father inheriting Polish citizenship through his polish father.
I don't have any documents that indicate my grandfather held German citizenship at any time. My understanding is that he was Polish until he took Aussie citizenship in 1972. However since he was 19 he was living in German occupied Poland or Germany (forced labour) and he married a German woman (my father's mother).
I guess the polish government wants to have proof that he never took german citizenship or served in german armed forces and thereby lost Polish citizenship (meaning he could not pass it onto my father.) Wouldn't the polish government have a record if he lost polish citizenship at some point ?

I have no idea where to look for this type of document.
If I called the German consulate would they be able to look up whether my grandfather ever held german citizenship and issue a document saying that he either held it or not ?
I don't have any travel documents or old passports/DP cards/IRO cards for my grandparents but I do know the numbers of the cards as they appear on other documents. Is it possible that archives in germany/Poland would have copies of these documents ? Does anyone know where to start ?
What I am looking for is anything related to my grandparents gaining German citizenship or losing Polish citizenship.

[marron]

I don't know about Germany but know how it works in another country. That country has a central record of all citizens. It is actually held by the government department in charge of elections. (You must be a citizen to be able to vote, and in fact all citizens are required to vote during elections.) So you would have to see whether Germany has something similar.

If Germany does not have central records, then maybe the town(s) where he lived may keep a record of residents and whether or not they are citizens.

I know that logically it doesn't make much sense to prove a negative (that someone never became a citizen) but this is the type of proof they are looking for.

There may also be some German documents for him that state his nationality. If German documents say he's Polish for example that wouldn't be enough proof that he really is Polish, but it would be proof that he is NOT German.