A 95-year-old man living in Tennessee who was a Nazi concentration camp guard during World War II was deported to Germany.
Friedrich Berger served as a guard in the Neuengamme concentration camp in 1945 and partook in “Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution,” according to a Department of Justice statement released Saturday announcing his deportation.
“Berger’s removal demonstrates the Department of Justice’s and its law enforcement partners’ commitment to ensuring that the United States is not a safe haven for those who have participated in Nazi crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses,” said acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson. “The Department marshaled evidence that our Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section found in archives here and in Europe, including records of the historic trial at Nuremberg of the most notorious former leaders of the defeated Nazi regime.”
“In this year in which we mark the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg convictions, this case shows that the passage even of many decades will not deter the Department from pursuing justice on behalf of the victims of Nazi crimes,” he added.
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Berger’s deportation was ordered in February 2020 after a two-day trial. The judge found that his removal did not violate any existing laws, given that his “willing service as an armed guard of prisoners at a concentration camp where persecution took place” constituted assistance in Nazi-sponsored persecution. The judge’s ruling also noted Berger’s admission that he never requested a transfer from the concentration camp guard service, the DOJ said.
The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the ruling in November 2020, making him the 70th former Nazi to be deported from the United States.
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“We are committed to ensuring the United States will not serve as a safe haven for human rights violators and war criminals,” said acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tae Johnson. “We will never cease to pursue those who persecute others. This case exemplifies the steadfast dedication of both ICE and the Department of Justice to pursue justice and to hunt relentlessly for those who participated in one of history’s greatest atrocities, no matter how long it takes.”
