Nazi guard dies at 95

FORMER Nazi concentration camp guard Jakiw Palij, who lived in New York City for decades until his past was revealed and he was deported to Germany last year, has died, German media has reported. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Westfaelische Na

chrichten newspapers independently quoted German officials saying Palij, 95, died on Wednesday in a care home in the town of Ahlen.

US Ambassador Richard Grenell, who lobbied for Germany to take Palij, said he had been informed of the death. He credited US President Donald Trump with seeing through Palij’s August 2018 deportation after it had been stalled for a quarter-century.

“It would have been upsetting to many Americans if he had died in the US in what many viewed as a comfortable escape,” Grenell said.

Palij (above) was the last Nazi facing deportation from the US when he was taken from his Queens home on a stretcher and put on a plane to Germany. “An evil man has passed away. That, I guess, is a positive,” said Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, who had led protests at Palij’s home.

Palij entered the US in 1949 under the Displaced Persons Act, a law meant to help refugees from post-war Europe.