US appeals court affirms ruling stripping Nazi guard of citizenship

A federal appeals court has upheld the a ruling regarding the removal of US citizenship from a man suspected of serving as an armed guard at Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The court found that Adam Friedrich took part in persecuting Jewish and other prisoners in "unspeakable conditions." Although the court accepted Friedrich's statement that he never saw a prisoner escape, never harmed a prisoner, never discharged his weapon while guarding prisoners and never saw any prisoners die during the forced evacuation marches, the court found that the defendant had served as an armed Nazi guard at concentration camps and during forced marches. It concluded that by serving at various concentration camps to ensure that prisoners did not escape, "Friedrich personally assisted in the persecution that occurred in those camps", making his eventual naturalization "illegally procured". Romanian-born Friedrich volunteered in 1942 in Austria for service in the Nazi "Waffen SS". In January 1943, he reported for duty as an armed guard in the SS "Death's Head Battalion" at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where 1,500 of the camp's roughly 100,000 prisoners died during Friedrich's first five months there.