FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       CRM   
JANUARY 21, 1997                                  (202) 616-2777
                                             TDD  (202) 514-1888



         EDITOR OF WORLD WAR II PRO-NAZI AND ANTI-SEMITIC
                 PUBLICATIONS IS ORDERED DEPORTED

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced
today that it has won a court order of deportation against Ferenc
Koreh, an Englewood, New Jersey, man who, as a propagandist
during World War II in Nazi-allied Hungary, publicly advocated
the persecution of Jews -- including measures such as mass
deportation and what he called the "de-jewification of Hungarian
life" -- and the defeat of the United States and its allies.
 
     From 1941 through 1944, Koreh held the position of
"Responsible Editor"  of Szekely Nep, the largest provincial
newspaper in Axis Hungary.  

     In June 1994, as a result of these activities, Koreh was
stripped of his citizenship in a U.S. District Court proceeding
in Newark, New Jersey.

     In an agreement entered into with the Criminal Division's
Office of Special Investigations (OSI), Koreh, 87, a retired
Radio Free Europe producer and broadcaster, admitted that he was
deportable for having assisted in the persecution of persons on
the basis of race, religion, national origin, and political
opinion during World War II, and because he lied about his
wartime activities in order to gain admission to the United
States in 1950.  The agreement concludes a deportation action
filed by the Government against Koreh in April 1996.  OSI began
denaturalization proceedings against Koreh in 1989.

     The agreement states that Koreh does not contest the
allegation that as responsible editor of Szekely Nep, a
virulently anti-Semitic and anti-American newspaper in Nazi-
allied Hungary, he was responsible for the publication of some
200 racist articles which helped create a climate in Hungary in
which the Nazi persecution of Jews became acceptable. 
 
     In a June 1994 decision stripping Koreh of his U.S.
citizenship, U.S. District Court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry
characterized the Szekely Nep articles as "poison" that portrayed
Jews as "alien elements with diabolical skills" and as being
"traitorous, unscrupulous, cheating. . . throughout. . .
Hungarian history," and advocated the "de-jewification of
Hungarian life" since "a final solution may be achieved only by
deporting Jewish elements."  Barry noted that these articles
represented only "the tip of the very dangerous and very
extensive iceberg."  She concluded that Koreh's activities
constituted "advocacy and assistance in persecution" and
"membership and participation in a movement hostile to the United
States," which under U.S. immigration law rendered Koreh
ineligible for admission into the U.S. at the time he entered the
country.

     Barry's decision to revoke Koreh's citizenship was
unanimously upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in
February 1995.  The appellate court found that Koreh's
involvement in the publication of anti-Semitic articles "assisted
in the persecution of Hungarian Jews by fostering a climate of
anti-Semitism in Northern Transylvania which conditioned the
Hungarian public to acquiesce in, to encourage, and to carry out
the abominable anti-Semitic policies of the Hungarian government
in the early 1940s." 
 
     Approximately 435,000 Hungarian Jews were deported between
May and July of 1944 to Nazi concentration and death camps, such
as Auschwitz.  Citing the postwar Nuremberg trial of Nazi
propagandist Julius Streicher as precedent, the Court of Appeals
emphasized "the maxim that the pen is at least as mighty if not
mightier than the sword.  That the Nazi powers and their cohorts
placed great confidence in the power of the word is demonstrated
by the emphasis they placed on propaganda."   Streicher was
convicted of Nazi crimes against humanity and hanged.

     In the settlement agreement entered into January 13, 1997,
Koreh conceded that the findings of the District Court and the
Court of Appeals were binding against him in the deportation
action filed by the government, and he agreed to the entry of an
order of deportation.  The government agreed that it would not
move to remove Koreh from the United States absent an improvement
in his rapidly deteriorating health.

     OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum stated that "propagandists
such as Koreh laid the foundation for Nazi genocide by fostering
an atmosphere of venomous hate in which inhumane measures could
be carried out without protest."  He added that the Koreh
proceedings are part of OSI's ongoing efforts to identify and
take legal action against former participants in Nazi persecution
who reside in the United States.  To date, 57 such persons have
been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 48 have been removed from
the United States.
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