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A US immigration judge has ordered that a former Nazi prison guard living in the US is to be deported back to Germany.
Judge Rebecca L. Holt, after a two-day trial, found that Friedrich Karl Berger, 94, was to be deported back to Germany for his actions during the Second World War. Berger has been living in Tennessee for years.
The German immigrant worked as an armed prison guard for the Nazi regime, guarding a concentration camp in Meppen, Germany in 1945.
Judge Holt found that Berger’s “willing service as an armed guard of prisoners at a concentration camp where persecution took place constituted assistance in Nazi-sponsored persecution.”
This means that he is a war criminal. In her findings, Judge Holt noted that Berger was removable under the 1978 Holtzman Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Berger’s worked for the Nazis in 1945, armed and guarding a sub-camp of Neuengamme, where prisoners included:
Berger guarded the prisoners while they worked. He used his weapons to keep them inside the camp.
Berger’s actions as a Nazi prison guard extended to a camp evacuation in March of 1945, when the Germans moved prisoners from the Meppen location to the main Neuengamme camp.
During the trek overland, prisoners were kept in inhumane conditions and over seventy of them died during the trip.
According to the Justice Department, Berger “never requested a transfer from concentration camp guard service” and that, to this day, he receives a German pension for his “wartime service.”
This, coupled with evidence that he seems to harbor no remorse for his actions, led to Berger’s deportation.
Berger, for his part, is outraged at the Judge’s findings.
“After 75 years, this is ridiculous,” he stated in an interview with the Washington Post. “I cannot understand how this can happen in a country like this. You’re forcing me out of my home.”
Berger’s attorney, Hugh Ward is reviewing the judge’s decision. Though his lawyer’s advice might be to appeal, Berger’s case isn’t exactly simple. As a war criminal from one of the most horrific fascist regimes to ever exist, Berger is lucky that the US only wants to deport him.
“The United States will not serve as a safe haven for human rights violators and war criminals,” said David C. Shaw, overseer of war crime cases of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We will continue to pursue these types of cases so that justice may be served.”
It may have been 75 years ago, but there is no statute of limitations on war crimes or human rights violations.
