Former Nazi camp guard arrives in Germany after removal from U.S.

A former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived in the United States for over 60 years returned to Germany on Saturday after being expelled, a police spokesman said. 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.


Reuters | Frankfurt | Updated: 20-02-2021 19:13 IST | Created: 20-02-2021 19:13 IST
Former Nazi camp guard arrives in Germany after removal from U.S.
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A former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived in the United States for over 60 years returned to Germany on Saturday after being expelled, a police spokesman said. The 95-year-old man faces questioning by local police after arriving at Frankfurt airport. He was not arrested. U.S. Justice Department officials have named him as Friedrich Karl Berger, while Germany authorities refer to him only as Friedrich Karl B.

A U.S. court last year ruled that Berger should be expelled after prosecutors in the northern German town of Celle opened an investigation into whether he was involved with the murder of prisoners at a satellite concentration camp of the Neuengamme network near Hamburg in 1945. According to German prosecutors B., who has lived in the United States since 1959, admitted to guarding prisoners for a few weeks in the Meppen area close to the Dutch border without witnessing any killings or abuse of prisoners.

The German case against him was dropped in December after prosecutors were unable to dispute his account. A spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Celle said police in the German state of Hesse had been asked to question him on his return to Germany. A police spokesman said there is no live investigation linked to him and he is a free individual and has not been taken in custody.

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.

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