A former Nazi concentration camp guard lost a Supreme Court appeal on Monday over the United States government's decision to revoke his American citizenship.

Justices declined to review the case of John Hansl, a member of the SS Death's Head battalion that guarded concentration camps at Sachsenhausen near Berlin in 1943 and Natzweiler in France in 1944.

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Hansl, who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, sought to distinguish his case from other former Nazi camp guards by arguing he did not hide his wartime past when he asked for a visa to enter the United States in the mid-1950s, nor did he personally assist in persecution.

An appeals court, however, agreed with a lower court ruling that Hansl's work as an armed guard with orders to shoot escaping prisoners was sufficient evidence that he "personally assisted in persecution."

In one instance, Hansl helped search for an escaped prisoner who was later shot to death. However, court records show that Hansl himself did not pull the trigger.

The Justice Department has said that more than 70 people who assisted in Nazi persecution have been stripped of U.S. citizenship since the Office of Special Investigations began operations in 1979. The office pursues war criminals.

The Supreme Court's action means the government could begin proceedings to have Hansl deported. He was born in Croatia to parents of German descent and conscripted into the SS after Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941.

Hansl's attorney, James Benzoni, had told justices that U.S. immigration policy after World War II allowed visas to be issued to former concentration camp guards unless they were directly involved in committing atrocities.