The United States deported a 95-year-old man to Germany after a federal investigation found that he worked as a guard in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, the Justice Department announced on Saturday.
Why does it matter: Federal agencies said Friedrich Karl Berger, a German citizen, participated in the Nazi-sponsored persecution in 1945 while serving as a guard in the Neuengamme concentration camp system in northern Germany.
What they are saying: “We are committed to ensuring that the United States does not serve as a safe haven for human rights violators and war criminals,” said ICE director Tae Johnson in a press release.
- “We will never stop chasing those who chase others,” added Johnson.
- “This case exemplifies the unwavering dedication of the ICE and the Department of Justice to seek justice and relentlessly hunt down those who participated in one of the greatest atrocities in history, no matter how long it takes.”
Details: Berger was investigated and prosecuted by the Department of Justice’s Human Rights and Special Proceedings Section, ICE Chief Legal Counsel’s Office (Memphis, Tennessee), Center for Human Rights and War Crimes Violators and Homeland Security Investigations field office in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- After a two-day trial in February 2020, a judge considered Berger, who has lived in the United States since 1959, to be removed from the country under the Holtzman Amendment to the 1978 Immigration and Nationality Act because his service as a concentration camp guard constituted assistance in Nazi-sponsored persecution.
- At the time, Berger told the Washington Post: “I can’t understand how it can happen in a country like this. You are forcing me to leave the house.”
- A court concluded that Berger served in a Neuengamme subfield near Meppen, Germany, which held Jews, Poles, Russians, Danes, Dutch, Latvians, French, Italians and political opponents of the Nazis as prisoners.
The presiding judge delivered an opinion discover that Meppen’s prisoners were held during the winter of 1945 in “atrocious” conditions and were exploited for forced labor in the open, working “to the point of exhaustion and death”.
- The court ruled and Berger admitted that he helped guard prisoners to prevent them from escaping during their workday from dawn to dusk.
- The court ruled that Berger helped protect prisoners during their forced evacuation to the main camp at Neuengamme, while British and Canadian military forces were advancing on Meppen in late March 1945.
- The forced evacuation lasted almost two weeks and claimed the lives of some 70 prisoners.
- The court also concluded that Berger never requested a transfer from the concentration camp guard service and that he continues to receive a pension from the German government based on his employment in Germany, “including his service during the war”.
The big picture: The Justice Department said Berger was the 70th Nazi stalker deported from the United States to Germany.