The New York Times reported Thursday that a federal immigration judge in Memphis has ordered the deportation of an Oak Ridge man who served at a Nazi concentration camp in Germany during World War II.
Friedrich Karl Berger, 94, was an armed guard in a sub camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, where prisoners were held during the winter of 1945 and forced to work outdoors “to the point of exhaustion and death,” the newspaper said.
The Times said Berger is a citizen of Germany, where he will be deported, and has continued to receive a pension based on his employment, “including his wartime service.”
Berger told The Washington Post on Thursday that he was ordered to work in the camp, was there for a short time, and did not carry a weapon. He has made a living in the United States building wire-stripping machines. The New York Times reported that Berger never requested a transfer from concentration camp guard service.
The Times reported that Rebecca L. Holt, the federal immigration judge in Memphis who ordered the deportation, found Berger deportable under the 1978 Holtzman Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act. Berger, who came to the United States in 1959, was ordered deported after a two-day trial. He has 30 days to appeal the decision.
See The New York Times story here.
See The Washington Post story here.
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