Mimi arrived in Britain at the age of 22 in 1939, just three days before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Once in the country, she was helped by the charity World Jewish Relief.
A few years later, Mimi was married at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, the site of the Islamist terror attack last year that saw two members of the community – Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby – killed.
[Missing Credit]Emma Barnett's maternal grandmother 'Mimi' (Credit: Emma Barnett/Instagram)
Austria is one of the stricter European countries when it comes to dual citizenship, with most Austrians not permitted to hold dual or multiple citizenships.
When Austrian citizens voluntarily acquire other nationalities, they normally lose Austrian citizenship automatically.
People obtaining Austrian citizenship are generally expected to renounce their former citizenship.
An exception exists for many descendants of people persecuted by the Nazi regime to acquire or restore Austrian citizenship without giving up their existing nationality.
In the same article, Barnett said she has been a longtime admirer of Austrian artist Egon Shiele.
“If I could own one painting it would be anything by [Shiele]. I’ve spent hours in front of his work,” she said.
Barnett explained that becoming an Austrian citizen will give her “a lot more of an excuse to go to the Leopold Museum, head to a grand old coffee house and think about what he was showing me.”
Barnett was born in 1985 in Salford, Manchester, to Jewish parents and was raised in the predominantly Orthodox Jewish area of Broughton Park
She attended King David Primary School and has spoken and written extensively about her Jewish identity, antisemitism, and her experiences as a Jewish woman in British public life.
