After 60-Plus Years in US, Ex-Nazi Guard Gets the Boot

Friedrich Karl Berger, 95, deported for working at 'atrocious' Neuengamme subcamp in Germany
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 20, 2021 9:00 AM CST
US Boots 95-Year-Old Ex-Nazi Concentration Camp Guard
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/ChiccoDodiFC)

Authorities in the US deported a 95-year-old man Friday who acknowledged working as a guard in a Nazi concentration camp. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement that Friedrich Karl Berger, a German citizen, was sent back to Germany this month for serving as a guard for a Neuengamme concentration camp subcamp in 1945, per the AP. The case was investigated by the US Department of Justice. Berger was ordered expelled by a Memphis, Tenn., court in February 2020, but he won't face trial in Germany, as prosecutors there dropped the case against him for lack of evidence. Berger had been living in the US since 1959.

According to an ICE statement, Berger served at the subcamp near Meppen, Germany, where Russian, Polish, Dutch, Jewish, and other prisoners were held in "atrocious" conditions and were worked "to the point of exhaustion and death." Berger admitted that he guarded prisoners to prevent them from escaping. He also accompanied prisoners during the forced evacuation of the camp that resulted in the deaths of 70 prisoners. Berger has admitted to serving as a guard for a few weeks near the end of the war, but he has said he didn't observe any abuse or killings, the dpa news agency has reported.

(More Nazis stories.)

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