Nazi camp guard deported to Germany from NYC

Germany on Tuesday took in a 95-year-old former guard at a Nazi labor camp where more than 6,000 people were killed, after he was stripped of his US citizenship.

The German foreign ministry said it had agreed to accept the former Ukraine national Jakiw Palij, who is now living in New York City, after his expulsion from the US late Monday, citing Berlin’s “moral duty” in light of the Nazis’ crimes.

“The United States had repeatedly pressed for Germany to take in Palij,” the ministry said. Berlin had long resisted as he was not a German citizen.

“The US administration, senators, members of Congress and representatives of the Jewish community in the United States stress that people who served the rogue Nazi regime should not be able to live out their twilight years in peace in their country of choice, the United States.”

Palij illegally concealed his Nazi past from US immigration agents when he moved to the US in 1949, the Justice Department said. He became American in 1957.

The White House said in a statement that President Donald Trump had “prioritized” the removal of Palij “to protect the promise of freedom for Holocaust survivors and their families.”

“Palij’s removal sends a strong message: The United States will not tolerate those who facilitated Nazi crimes and other human rights violations, and they will not find a safe haven on American soil,” it said.

German media reports said Palij arrived early Tuesday at Duesseldorf airport and was to be taken to an elder care home.