A former guard at a Nazi labour camp, who has been living in the United States for decades, was deported to Germany on Tuesday following years of battle, the White House said.
Jakiw Palij, who is 95 years old, worked as a guard at the Trawniki Labor Camp, in German-occupied Poland. He immigrated to the US in 1949, becoming a citizen in 1957. He had reportedly lied to US immigration officials about his role in World War II, saying he worked on a farm and in a factory. Palij had been living in New York City’s Queens.
Palij is the 68th Nazi collaborator to be removed from the US, according to the Department of Justice.
“By serving as an armed guard at the Trawniki Labor Camp and preventing the escape of Jewish prisoners during his Nazi service, Palij played an indispensable role in ensuring that the Trawniki Jewish victims met their horrific fate at the hands of the Nazis,” the statement issued by Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
Palij arrived at Germany’s Dusseldorf airport on Tuesday and was taken by a Red Cross ambulance to a nursing home near Munster, in northwestern Germany.
Palij was believed to be the last Nazi collaborator living in the US, BBC reported. In 2003, a federal judge revoked his US citizenship, rendering him stateless. For years, Germany refused to accept him as he never had German nationality. Palij was born in what was then Poland and now Ukraine.
Talking about the delay in deporting Palij, US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said President Donald Trump and the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new cabinet played an important role.
“We accept the moral obligation of Germany, in whose name terrible injustice was committed under the Nazis,” Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, according to The New York Times.
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