Bernardo Jerochim, a shoe shine man of Buenos Aires for the last 50 years, recovered his German citizenship last April 11th.
His story goes back to the Nazi Germany when his parents escaped to Argentina along with their ten children. In 1941 a nazi law took away the German citizenship to all the German Jews.
From Berlin, Pastor Annemarie Werner, leader of the ”Vaterunser” Church, sent a moving letter to Bernardo.
Bernardo received the certificate of citizenship with his family, his lawyer, Alejandro Candioti, and members of the Wallenberg Foundation whose intervention proved decisive to make Bernardo’s dream come true.
The burocratic paperwork impeded Bernardo to see again his brother Erwin who died a month ago.
Now, Bernardo Jerochim (78) just needs to travel to Germany. ”The Berlin Mayor invited me several times, but I couldn’t do it because I had no passport”, he said.
