News: U.S. deports former Nazi guard to Austria

[Nick VR]

An Austrian man who participated in a Nazi massacre of Jews during World War II and later gained U.S. citizenship has been deported to Austria, U.S. officials said.

The Sachsenhausen concentration camp just north of Berlin where the U.S. says Krumpf worked as an SS guard.

Josias Krumpf, 83, lived for years after the war in Racine, Wisconsin. The United States revoked his citizenship in 2005 after the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice sought to denaturalize him.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita Glavin announced Krumpf's deportation Thursday. It was not clear when he arrived in Austria, and representatives of the Austrian Justice Ministry were not immediately available for comment.

"His court-ordered removal from the United States to Austria is another milestone in the government's long-running effort to ensure that individuals who participated in crimes against humanity do not find sanctuary in this country," Glavin said.

The United States removed Krumpf because of his participation in that and other Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution during the war, Glavin said.

Krumpf admits standing watch on November 3, 1943, as SS guards at the Trawniki Labor Camp in Poland shot and killed 8,000 Jews, including women and 400 children, in pits. Glavin said Krumpf said he had orders to shoot any prisoners who survived.

Krumpf also served as an SS guard at the Nazi-run Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany and at slave labor sites in Nazi-occupied France, where prisoners under his watch built launching platforms for German missile attacks on England, Glavin said.

The November 1943 shooting was part of a larger Nazi operation called "Aktion Erntefest," or "Operation Harvest Festival," that led to the deaths of 42,000 Jews at three camps in eastern Poland in two days, the Justice Department said.

At Trawniki, Krumpf said, he was assigned to watch for victims who were still "halfway alive" or "convulsing" and prevent their escape by shooting them to death, the Justice Department said.

Krumpf, who was born in Serbia, immigrated to the United States in 1956 and became a U.S. citizen in 1964.

His removal to Austria is part of an effort by several U.S. government departments and law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute participants in Nazi crimes of persecution who live in the United States, the Justice Department said.

The Criminal Division's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) started the operation in 1979 and has since won cases against 107 alleged Nazi criminals, the Justice Department said.

The OSI also has a watch list for World War II war criminals that has prevented the entry of more than 180 people into the United States, the Justice Department said.

(source CNN)


Link to the original topic:

U.S. deports former Nazi guard to Austria - CNN.com




Greetz

Nick VR

[bikerboyzx6r]

This follows the SUN newspaper printing photos a few months ago of SS members in their 80's and 90's and offering rewards for their whereabouts! The hunt is still well and truly on!!!
Dan

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

With the boot on the other foot.
Do you think they'll ever be a Weisental type organisation set up to track down the Israeli troops who appear to have recently committed crimes against Humanity in the Palestine invasion. Got to be honest I dont suppose so, as said umpteen times before the Victors write the history and are able to protect their own. Its interesting comparing history with today 'the Pot calling the kettle black' seems to come to mind.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[Nick VR]

The hunt is indeed still on, if I remember correct last year they chased a 90 year old ex SS man through the jungles of India...


Greetz

Nick VR

[Will Junior]

Thank you for sharing this important story. Kumpf appears to have been deported in 2007 to Germany. See below:

Former Nazi guard, 81, to be deported Josias Kumpf, a U.S. citizen since 1964, will move to Germany.
THE NATION
January 05, 2007|Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — A federal immigration judge has ordered the removal of a retired Wisconsin sausage maker who slipped into this country half a century ago by hiding his past as a Nazi prison camp guard, authorities said Thursday.

Josias Kumpf was the 100th former Nazi in the U.S. to be prosecuted by the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations. Since he was identified and his case became public in 2005, the government has won cases against four other former Nazis who participated in crimes during World War II.

Kumpf, an 81-year-old living in Racine, Wis., was born in what is now Serbia and immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1956 under a program designed to help post-World War II refugees in Europe. But he did not disclose his service as an SS Death's Head guard, which would have barred him from entering the country.

In 1964 he became a U.S. citizen and for years worked quietly in a sausage plant and raised five children.

Kumpf's past caught up with him after government prosecutors linked his name to guard rosters from Poland's notorious Trawniki labor camp, where about 8,000 Jewish men, women and children were killed in a single day in November 1943. Forced out of their bunks and into ditches they had dug themselves, the prisoners were shot en masse.

Kumpf, confronted with his wartime service, admitted to prosecutors that he guarded prisoners at Trawniki. But he denied killing anyone. "I don't do nothing to nobody," he said in his broken English. "My fingers are clean."

He said he watched the shootings but never fired his weapon. Rather, he stood guard at the perimeter of the camp with orders to stop any prisoners who ran away, he said.

Eli Rosenbaum, OSI director, said Kumpf was an "indispensable accomplice to Nazi mass murder," adding that the former guard had orders to "shoot to kill" any prisoners trying to flee.

Kumpf had been fighting the government's effort to remove him from the U.S.; he and his family hoped he could end his days in this country.

But Immigration Judge Jennie L. Giambastiani of Chicago found that Kumpf's role as an armed Nazi SS guard "unquestionably establishes by clear and convincing evidence that he was actively and personally involved in the persecution of others."

The judge gave him a choice of deportation to Germany, Austria or Serbia; Kumpf chose Germany.

[big ned]

Hi Will Jr.,

Don't concern yourself any longer about Herr Kumpf, If you'd done your homework prior to posting, you'd know he died on the 15th October 2009 in Vienna, Austria at the Wilhelminenspital, a highly regarded hospital.

Ned.

[jh92]

Great to see that he was deported, but it is pretty pathetic that it took the Government so long to get him.

[sitges1990]

On December 31st, 1997, a local TV station was doing reports on a Justice Department investigation tracking down ex-SS guards in the Kansas City area. A TV investigative reporter discoverd a local 80 year old man named Michael Kolnhofer, a native Croatian, had lied about his life's history when he was granted US citizenship in 1952. The stupid TV reporter went to Kolnhofer's house and started asking him questions about his past, at which time Kolnhofer came out with a gun and pointed it at them. Kolnhofer told the reporter he was innocent and told them to get off his property. The TV reporter called the police and when they got there, Kolnhofer pointed his gun at them and they shot him. He died a few days later. It was "reported" that Kolnhofer had been an SS guard at Sachenausen and Buchenwald. Kolnhofer had admitted being a guard, but said he was drafted and had no control over where he was assigned. He denied ever killing any prisoners. Who knows what the truth is. The years have piled up now and time waits for no one. Soon all these men will be judged by a higher power. Naturally the stupid TV reporter won a prestiges media award for the story.

Jay

[jh92]

On December 31st, 1997, a local TV station was doing reports on a Justice Department investigation tracking down ex-SS guards in the Kansas City area. A TV investigative reporter discoverd a local 80 year old man named Michael Kolnhofer, a native Croatian, had lied about his life's history when he was granted US citizenship in 1952. The stupid TV reporter went to Kolnhofer's house and started asking him questions about his past, at which time Kolnhofer came out with a gun and pointed it at them. Kolnhofer told the reporter he was innocent and told them to get off his property. The TV reporter called the police and when they got there, Kolnhofer pointed his gun at them and they shot him. He died a few days later. It was "reported" that Kolnhofer had been an SS guard at Sachenausen and Buchenwald. Kolnhofer had admitted being a guard, but said he was drafted and had no control over where he was assigned. He denied ever killing any prisoners. Who knows what the truth is. The years have piled up now and time waits for no one. Soon all these men will be judged by a higher power. Naturally the stupid TV reporter won a prestiges media award for the story.
Jay

Yikes taht story is even more twisted.

[sitges1990]

Hi JH, I'm with you. I'm all for them hunting down the guards that were cold blooded killers, but they need to be absolutely sure what they have when they corner these old guys. Many 80 year olds aren't thinking very clear and I'm sure this guy felt threatened. I'm not an apologist, and this guy might have been a killer, I have no idea. But, alot of time has passed, and memories get fuzzy. I just hope the government is fair and doesn't jump to conclusions when they deport these old guys.

Jay