Judge Grants Removal Order for German Citizen Based on Nazi Service

An immigration judge in Memphis, Tennessee has issued a removal order against a German citizen and Tennessee resident based on his service in Nazi Germany in 1945. Friedrich Karl Berger served as an armed guard at a concentration camp in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp system.

According to the Justice Department (DOJ) release, under the 1978 Holtzman Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act, Berger is eligible for removal because his “willing service as an armed guard of prisoners at a concentration camp where persecution took place” constituted assistance in Nazi-sponsored persecution. The court found that Berger served at a Neuengamme sub-camp near Meppen, Germany.  The camp held people of many nationalities.

U.S. Immigration Judge Rebecca L. Holt described the conditions of the prisoners during the winter of 1945 as “atrocious” in her findings, which details how the prisoners were exploited for outdoor forced labor and worked “to the point of exhaustion and death.”  Berger admitted and court findings found that he guarded prisoners to prevent them from escaping during their dawn-to-dusk workday, on their way to the worksites, and on their way back to the subcamp in the evening.

At the end of March 1945, the advance of British and Canadian troops caused the Nazis to abandon Meppen. During that time, Berger helped guard the prisoners during their forced evacuation of the main camp. This nearly two-week trip claimed the lives of roughly 70 prisoners.

Berger admitted to the court that he never requested a transfer from concentration camp guard service and that he continues to receive a pension from Germany based on his employment in Germany, “including his wartime service.”

Berger’s arrest is part of a 1979 Justice Department program to detect, investigate, and remove Nazi persecutors. The program has resulted in successful cases against 109 individuals.

“Berger was part of the SS machinery of oppression that kept concentration camp prisoners in atrocious conditions of confinement,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.  “This ruling shows the Department's continued commitment to obtaining a measure of justice, however late, for the victims of wartime Nazi persecution.”