Former Nazi guard Jakiw Palij, who was deported from the United States to Germany last year after years of unsuccessful attempts, has died at the age of 95.
U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell confirmed this development on Twitter: “Former Nazi prison guard Jakiw Palij has died in Germany. I am so thankful to [U.S. President Donald Trump] for making the case a priority. Removing the former Nazi prison guard from the US was something multiple Presidents just talked about – but President Trump made it happen.”
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out the 2004 order of deportation for Palij, a former SS guard at the Trawniki labor camp in Poland, which was part of “Operation Reinhard,” when the Nazis murdered as many as 2 million Polish Jews between October 1941 and November 1943.
On Nov. 3, 1943, the Nazis shot approximately 6,000 Jewish inmates to death.
In 2001, Palij confessed to U.S. Department of Justice officials that he was a guard at Trawniki.
Previous administrations were unable to remove Palij, who said he was forced to be a guard, from U.S. soil due to Poland, Germany, Ukraine and other nations refusing to accept him.
However, Germany’s Foreign Office said its decision to admit Palij, the last-known Nazi war criminal in the United States, demonstrated the country accepting “moral responsibility” even though it admitted there might not be sufficient evidence to charge the 95-year-old with war crimes.