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Pacific Historian
Former Nazi Concentration Camp Guard Loses U.S. Citizenship, Departs
United States
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire- USNewswire/ -- A federal judge in
Washington, D.C., has entered an order revoking the U.S. citizenship
of Martin Hartmann for his role as an armed SS guard at the notorious
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany during World War II,
Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division
announced today.
Hartmann, 88, formerly of Mesa, Ariz., left the United States for
Germany prior to entry of the order and is permanently barred from
returning.
Hartmann was born in Romania, immigrated to the United States in 1955
and became a U.S. citizen in 1961. In a complaint filed with the U.S.
District Court in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17, 2007, the Criminal
Division's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia alleged that Hartmann
joined the SS Death's Head Guard Battalion at Sachsenhausen in July
1943 and served with the Nazis until the end of the war. The
complaint further alleged that his wartime Nazi service rendered him
ineligible for a U.S. immigration visa and that he concealed that
service when he applied for a visa and later for U.S. citizenship.
"This result reflects the Justice Department's unwavering commitment
to ensuring that those who helped the Nazi regime carry out its
genocidal plans find no sanctuary in America," said Assistant
Attorney General Fisher.
In a settlement agreement reached last month and filed on September
17, 2007, Hartmann admitted that he served in the SS Death's Head
Guard Battalion at the Sachsenhausen camp during World War II, and he
acknowledged that by serving as an armed SS guard of civilian
prisoners he personally assisted in Nazi-directed persecution.
Hartmann also consented to the entry of a court order revoking his
U.S. citizenship entered today by U.S. District Judge Emmet G.
Sullivan. Accordingly, he agreed to depart the U.S. permanently by
Aug. 31, 2007, and he acknowledged that he would be ineligible to
reenter the United States following denaturalization.
Prisoners at Sachsenhausen were confined under inhumane conditions
and were subjected to grueling slave labor, physical and emotional
abuse, horrific medical experimentation, torture and execution.
During the period of Hartmann's service there, thousands of
Sachsenhausen prisoners died of starvation, disease, exhaustion or
outright murder. The complaint alleges that by performing armed SS
guard service at the Sachsenhausen camp and its subcamps, and by
preventing prisoners from escaping those places of torment and death,
Hartmann personally assisted the Nazi government of Germany in
persecuting persons because of their race, religion, national origin
or political opinion.
"Martin Hartmann and other members of the SS Death's Head Guard
Battalion were indispensable accomplices in the brutal crimes
committed in the Nazi concentration camp system," said OSI Director
Eli M. Rosenbaum.
The Hartmann investigation was led by OSI trial attorneys Stephen
Paskey and Edgar Chen and is a result of OSI's ongoing efforts to
identify, investigate, and take legal action against former
participants in Nazi persecution who reside in the United States.
Since OSI began operations in 1979, it has won cases against 106
individuals who assisted in Nazi-sponsored persecution. In addition,
180 suspected Axis persecutors who sought to enter the United States
in recent years have been stopped at U.S. ports of entry and barred
from entering the country as a result of OSI's "Watchlist" program,
which is enforced in cooperation with the Department of Homeland
Security.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
United States
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire- USNewswire/ -- A federal judge in
Washington, D.C., has entered an order revoking the U.S. citizenship
of Martin Hartmann for his role as an armed SS guard at the notorious
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany during World War II,
Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division
announced today.
Hartmann, 88, formerly of Mesa, Ariz., left the United States for
Germany prior to entry of the order and is permanently barred from
returning.
Hartmann was born in Romania, immigrated to the United States in 1955
and became a U.S. citizen in 1961. In a complaint filed with the U.S.
District Court in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17, 2007, the Criminal
Division's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia alleged that Hartmann
joined the SS Death's Head Guard Battalion at Sachsenhausen in July
1943 and served with the Nazis until the end of the war. The
complaint further alleged that his wartime Nazi service rendered him
ineligible for a U.S. immigration visa and that he concealed that
service when he applied for a visa and later for U.S. citizenship.
"This result reflects the Justice Department's unwavering commitment
to ensuring that those who helped the Nazi regime carry out its
genocidal plans find no sanctuary in America," said Assistant
Attorney General Fisher.
In a settlement agreement reached last month and filed on September
17, 2007, Hartmann admitted that he served in the SS Death's Head
Guard Battalion at the Sachsenhausen camp during World War II, and he
acknowledged that by serving as an armed SS guard of civilian
prisoners he personally assisted in Nazi-directed persecution.
Hartmann also consented to the entry of a court order revoking his
U.S. citizenship entered today by U.S. District Judge Emmet G.
Sullivan. Accordingly, he agreed to depart the U.S. permanently by
Aug. 31, 2007, and he acknowledged that he would be ineligible to
reenter the United States following denaturalization.
Prisoners at Sachsenhausen were confined under inhumane conditions
and were subjected to grueling slave labor, physical and emotional
abuse, horrific medical experimentation, torture and execution.
During the period of Hartmann's service there, thousands of
Sachsenhausen prisoners died of starvation, disease, exhaustion or
outright murder. The complaint alleges that by performing armed SS
guard service at the Sachsenhausen camp and its subcamps, and by
preventing prisoners from escaping those places of torment and death,
Hartmann personally assisted the Nazi government of Germany in
persecuting persons because of their race, religion, national origin
or political opinion.
"Martin Hartmann and other members of the SS Death's Head Guard
Battalion were indispensable accomplices in the brutal crimes
committed in the Nazi concentration camp system," said OSI Director
Eli M. Rosenbaum.
The Hartmann investigation was led by OSI trial attorneys Stephen
Paskey and Edgar Chen and is a result of OSI's ongoing efforts to
identify, investigate, and take legal action against former
participants in Nazi persecution who reside in the United States.
Since OSI began operations in 1979, it has won cases against 106
individuals who assisted in Nazi-sponsored persecution. In addition,
180 suspected Axis persecutors who sought to enter the United States
in recent years have been stopped at U.S. ports of entry and barred
from entering the country as a result of OSI's "Watchlist" program,
which is enforced in cooperation with the Department of Homeland
Security.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
