A 95-year-old man who was a Nazi concentration camp guard during WWII has been deported from the U.S. to Germany; authorities announced on Friday.
Friedrich Karl Berger, who lived in Tennessee, was deported “for participating in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution” while serving at the concentration camp in 1945; the Justice Department said.
Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson said in a statement that Berger’s removal from the U.S. demonstrates the department’s “commitment to ensuring that the United States is not a safe haven for those who have participated in Nazi crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses.”
The case was investigated by the US Department of Justice. Berger was ordered expelled by a Memphis, Tennessee, court in February 2020 but will not face trial in Germany because prosecutors dropped the case against him for lack of evidence.
Germany’s prosecutors said at the time that admitting to guarding prisoners was not directly killing prisoners. Hence the evidence had “not linked the man to a concrete act of killing.”
Berger has admitted serving as a guard for a few weeks near the end of the war but has said he did not observe any abuse or killings, news agencies have reported.
Berger admitted he guarded prisoners. He also accompanied prisoners on the forced evacuation of the camp that resulted in the deaths of 70 prisoners.
He had been living in the US since 1959.
Berger was flown to Germany on Saturday and arrived in Frankfurt; where he will be questioned; the Celle prosecutor’s office said.
It was not immediately clear if he will be put on trial. Prosecutors in Germany dropped charges against Berger in December 2020, citing insufficient evidence.
But if he is willing to speak about the accusations against him the case could be
In recent years; prosecutors have brought charges against several former Nazis; seizing the last opportunity to secure justice for the millions who perished in concentration camps.
Earlier this month; prosecutors charged a 100-year-old German man with being an accessory to 3,518 murders committed while he was allegedly a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.