Author Edmund de Waal planning Austria reunion 80 years after family fled

British author and ceramicist Edmund de Waal has said his family is planning a reunion in Austria 80 years after they were forced to flee.

The author of the 2010 bestselling family memoir ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’ said it “will mean the world” to his 90-year old father, who fled to the UK aged ten, together with his Jewish family.

It follows an announcement from the Austrian government that the country is to allow descendants of Nazi victims to reclaim their citizenship.

Speaking to The Observer, de Waal said: “My father will be coming with us to Vienna, and would like to be able to finally have the citizenship that was stripped from his parents. The only reason I and my family exist at all is because my father was allowed to come to Britain as a refugee and become a British citizen.”

De Waal’s work includes delicate porcelain vessels arranged in groups displayed in vitrines or shelves, and is the current focal point of a major exhibition in Berlin.