IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Court rules ex-Nazi guard should be deported

A former Nazi concentration camp guard who was allowed to emigrate to the United States decades ago should be deported because his work as a guard constituted "persecutory conduct," a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A former Nazi concentration camp guard who was allowed to emigrate to the United States decades ago should be deported because his work as a guard constituted "persecutory conduct," a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Anton Geiser, 83, was granted a visa in 1956 to come to the United States. Geiser did not cite his Nazi ties on his visa application, but he is not accused of lying about them. Files from the period have been lost, and it is not clear what questions he was asked.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court said in its ruling that Geiser's work as a Nazi guard would meet the standard for persecutory conduct banned under the Refugee Relief Act, which was in effect when he entered the country and that he should have his U.S. citizenship revoked and be deported.

"We conclude, as have other Courts of Appeals, that according to the plain meaning of the RRA, concentration camp guards 'personally advocated or assisted in ... persecution,'" Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote.

Geiser's lawyer, Adrian N. Roe, had argued that guards not deemed war criminals were sometimes allowed into the country by the State Department. Roe complained that the Justice Department, in its efforts to expel former Nazis, was revisiting decisions made a half-century ago.

Roe did not immediately return a message after office hours Tuesday.

The Justice Department had argued that Geiser's visa approval was "a mistake" that should be corrected, however belatedly.

Geiser, an ethnic German, served as an armed SS Death's Head guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. He then was transferred to an SS officer training camp at Arolsen, where he escorted prisoners to and from the Buchenwald camp, where tens of thousands of Jews and others were exterminated. Geiser was at Arolsen until April 1945.

Geiser has lived in Sharon, Pa., about 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, since June 1960. He married and had three sons. In 1987, he retired from a steel company.

The Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation has been pursuing naturalized citizens with alleged Nazi ties for three decades. The office has prevailed in more than 100 cases, leading to at least 65 deportations, a spokeswoman previously said.