The United States extradited a former guard to Germany …

The United States extradited former Nazi concentration camp guard to Germany today, reported the Ministry of Justice. It is Friedrich Karl Shepherd, 95, arrived at Frankfurt airport this Saturday in a medical transport plane.

Berger was handed over to the regional criminal investigations office for questioning by the Celle city prosecutor’s office, which accuses him of complicity in the murder of prisoners. According to US authorities, Berger confessed to monitoring prisoners as a guard at a center in Meppen, Lower Saxony state, which was part of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg.

Until now, the former guard has lived in the state of Tennessee, United States. In February last year, an American judge ordered his deportation and in November an appeal was dismissed.

Berger’s deportation demonstrates the Department of Justice and authorities’ commitment to ensuring that the United States is not a safe place for those who participated in Nazi crimes against humanity and others human rights violations, ”Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson said. .

The February ruling established that Jews, Poles, Russians, Danes, Dutch, French and political prisoners, among others, were being held in this concentration camp. The prisoners were locked up in the winter of 1945 in “terrible” conditions and had to work “to the point of exhaustion and death”. Reports add that around 70 prisoners died “in inhumane conditions”.

According to the German weekly The mirrorBerger moved to Tennessee in 1959 and remained there for many years without being recognized. Investigators apparently tracked it down when Nazi-era documents were found on a sunken ship in the Baltic Sea.

In September 2020, the Celle public prosecutor’s office opened investigations into Berger, which were suspended in December “due to a lack of suspicion”, given that, it was then argued, the admission of having observing prisoners was not sufficient evidence. It was added that investigations had not established a link between the man “and a specific murder action”, so it is not yet certain that he can be brought to justice.