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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INITIATES REMOVAL ACTION IN NEW YORK CITY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of Justice has initiated deportation (removal) proceedings against a New City, New York man it alleges served the Nazis as an armed SS guard at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany during World War II.

The Notice to Appear, filed in U.S. Immigration Court in New York by the Criminal Division's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the New York District Office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), alleges that Michael Gruber, 84, a native of Croatia and an Austrian citizen, was a member of the Nazi-sponsored Waffen-SS from September 1942 until December 1944. The first hearing in the case will occur on October 1.

The government alleges that Gruber's wartime activities at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp constituted assistance in the persecution of civilians on the basis of their race, religion, national origin, or political opinion, requiring his removal.

OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum noted that Sachsenhausen, one of the first concentration camps to be constructed, was used by the Nazis to isolate and eliminate Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and other Nazi-designated enemies. "Segregation, debasement, physical mistreatment, and extermination were practiced on a daily basis at Sachsenhausen," said Rosenbaum.

Gruber immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1956. His removal from the United States is being sought under sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 commonly referred to as the Holtzman Amendment, named after the principal sponsor of the 1978 legislation that added them to the statute, former New York Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman.

"The Gruber proceeding is a result of OSI's continuing investigation of Nazi persecutors residing illegally in this country," said Rosenbaum. Since OSI began operations in 1979, 63 Nazi persecutors have been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 52 such individuals have been removed from the United States. Approximately 250 persons are currently under investigation by the Department of Justice unit.

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