New York Nazi Deported
Nazi prison guard Jakiw Palij, who has lived in Queens since 2001, has been deported to Germany.
The 95-year-old former concentration camp guard landed in the western German city of Duesseldorf on Tuesday, the Associated Press has reported.
“Jakiw Palij oversaw untold atrocities against innocent men, women, and children at the Nazi Trawniki camp,” local Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey stated in a press release. “His presence in New York has served as a painful reminder and insult to those who fought in World War II or lost loved ones in the Holocaust.”
Last year, Lowey and Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY14) secured an amendment in the fiscal year 2018 appropriations bill to urge the State Department to deport Jakiw Palij.
“Today’s news of Palij’s deportation is a win for justice and an affirmation of the United States’ opposition to hate,” Lowey also remarked. “I appreciate U.S. government officials’ long-time work on this important issue and the German government’s willingness to accept the deportation.”
German prosecutors have previously said it does not appear there’s enough evidence to charge Palij with wartime crimes, according to the AP, but now that he’s in Germany, Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi-hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he hoped prosecutors would revisit the case.
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