A federal appeals court in Chicago has upheld a deportation order against a Ukrainian-born man who was stripped of his citizenship for his role in a Nazi-operated Ukrainian police unit during World War II. The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the 2007 deportation order against Osyp Firishchak, who immigrated to the United States in 1949 and became an American citizen five years later.
Firishchak, now 90, was stripped of his citizenship in 2005 by a federal court which ruled that he “was a participant in an organization that perpetrated some of the most horrific acts against human decency ever known in history.” He concealed his service in the Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian Auxiliary Police service when he came to the United States. The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (UAP) assisted in the annihilation of more than 100,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied Lvov, Poland (now Ukraine), during World War II.
According to the allegations, between October 1941 and July 1944 Firishchak routinely enforced anti-Jewish policies of the Nazis during his service with the UAP. He took part in actions to reduce the population of the Jewish Ghetto, guarded posts to keep Jews from escaping capture, and hunted Jews who attempted to hide or flee.
