95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard arrested and deported

A 95-year-old German citizen who was a keeper of a Nazi concentration camp and lived in United States was deported to Germany on Saturday, Department of Justice WE.

It is Friedrich Karl Berger, who lived in Tennessee and he had German citizenship. He was sent to his home country for having been an armed guard in the concentration camp Neuengamme in 1945, the department noted.

Shepherd was expelled for participating in “Acts of persecution promoted by the Nazis”, informed the judicial authorities. “The deportation of Berger demonstrates the commitment of Department of Justice and the authorities to ensure that United States It is not a safe site for those who have participated in nazi crimes against humanity and others Human rights abuse“Said the Acting Attorney General (Minister of Justice) Monty Wilkinson.

An immigration judge ordered in March last year the deportation of Shepherd, who had lived in the United States since 1959. Berger was stationed near Meppen, in Germany, during the Second World War, where prisoners were held “Atrocious” conditions and they worked “until death”Said the judge making his decision Rebecca holt.

Shepherd admitted at trial that he prevented prisoners from escaping Concentration camp of Neuengamme. He also said he was unaware that the prisoners had been mistreated and that some had died. He assured that he was following orders. The court also found that in March 1945, before the advance of British and Canadian forces, Shepherd helped to keep prisoners as they were forcibly evacuated in inhumane conditions, resulting in the death of some 70 captives.

Prisoners of Neuengamme included “Jews, Poles, Russians, Danes, Germans, Latvians, French, Italians and political opponents” of the Nazis, the Justice Department noted. More than 40,000 prisoners, according to historical records, died in the Neuengamme camp, located in northern Germany, in the district of Hamburg.

Berger flew to Germany Saturday and arrived at Frankfurt be questioned. So far, it is not clear whether he will be tried in his home country. German justice abandoned the process against Shepherd in December 2020, citing insufficient evidence.

However, in recent years, German prosecutors have successfully argued that by helping a extermination camp or in a concentration camp, guards can be found guilty of aiding and abetting murder, even if there is no evidence that they participated in a specific death.

The Department of Justice collected evidence from American and European archives, “including Nuremberg trials“. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials, during which lawyers from countries Allies who won the Second war bring regime figures to justice Nazi under international law. Twelve defendants were sentenced to death and hanged.

In an interview he gave to the newspaper last year The Washington Post, Shepherd noted that the events occurred while he was 19 years old, he was unarmed and followed orders. “After 75 years, it’s ridiculous,” he told the aforementioned media.

“I cannot understand how this can happen in a country like this,” he added. Berger never asked to be transferred from his post and subsequently received a pension of Germany based in part on his wartime service, according to the Department of Justice.

In 1979, the government of United States created the Special Investigative Office of the Ministry of Justice dedicated to research nazis. So far, the program has won court victories against 109 people. The last deportation until this Saturday had been that of former SS guard Jakiw Palij, also 95 years old, who lived in New York since 1949 and was deported in August 2018.

Berger’s case is “perhaps the last” in United Stateshe told AFP last year Eli Rosenbaum, director of the special program of the Department of Justice.

With information from the AP and AFP

THE NATION