A Romanian-born former member of the Nazi SS had his US citizenship revoked last week by a federal judge.  The 84-year-old Joseph Wittje is accused of serving as a concentration camp guard, according to the Associated Press. 

At his hearing, the government said Wittje served in the Romanian Army from February 1942 until July 1943, and was a member of the Waffen SS, a Nazi party organization that included combat and guard units in concentration camps, from 1943-1945.  An international military tribunal classified the group as a criminal organization in 1946.  In his immigration papers from 1950, Wittje did not reveal his membership in the Waffen SS according to the Justice Department complaint.  Instead, his attorney said Wittje was stationed near Sachsenhausen and belonged to an SS Death’s Head battalion, but was never a guard.

In 1978, US immigration laws were amended to allow deportation of anyone who assisted or participated in Nazi acts of persecution.  Furthermore, the Justice Department has had an office dedicated solely to investigating cases of former Nazis living in the United States.  The department has won cases against more than 90 people.

In Wittje’s case, the government declared that Wittje was unlawfully admitted to the United States when he was granted citizenship in August 1959 because the Nazi Waffen SS was a movement hostile to the Untied States.  The government filed a complaint that sought to revoke Wittje’s citizenship in September 2003.  Last week his certificate of naturalization was canceled and the Immigration Judge ordered him to turn it over to the attorney general.