U.S. seeks to deport man accused of being former Nazi camp guard - Haaretz

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Last update - 10:49 02/10/2007

U.S. seeks to deport man accused of being former Nazi camp guard

By The Associated Press

U.S. authorities have begun deportation proceedings against an 85-year-old man who they say served as a Nazi guard and trained and handled attack dogs at the infamous Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps in Germany, officials said Monday.

The Department of Justice said it has filed a charging document against Paul Henss, a German citizen who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville and who authorities say entered the U.S. in 1955 after hiding his concentration camp service.

The document, filed on Sept. 4 by the Justice Department's Criminal Division's Office of Special Investigations and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Henss joined the Hitler Youth organization in Germany in 1934 as a 12 or 13-year-old boy and joined the Nazi Party in September 1940.

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In February 1941, he entered the Waffen SS then volunteered the following year to become an SS dog handler, the document said. From 1942 to 1944 Henss served as a guard at the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, where he instructed other guards in the use of trained attack dogs to guard prisoners and prevent their escape, authorities said.

SS regulations during Henss' time of service required dogs to be trained to 'bite without mercy' and to literally tear prisoners to pieces if they attempted to escape, the document said.

Henss is not in federal custody, and according to the charging document he admitted on March 13 that he served as an SS guard at Dachau and Buchenwald for two to three months each as a dog handler, but denied having killed people.

"I didn't commit no crimes, I didn't hurt nobody. Otherwise I wouldn't have come to the United States," he said, adding that the Holocaust a catastrophe.
"Everybody in Germany knows that wasn't right," he said.

Henss maintains he fought in Russia. "I didn't join the SS to fight in concentration camps," he said. "Everybody had to do something... Anybody who has anything to do with the concentration camps is guilty automatically," he added.

Henss said that when he came to the U.S. 33 years ago, immigration officials did not ask about his military service in Germany.

"I forgot about the war," he said. "I wanted to leave the war behind me."

He's a good man," said his wife Else. "I don't want to lose him."

The Office of Special Investigations, which handles cases against people accused of being former Nazis, began operations in 1979. Authorities said it has won cases against 106 participants in Nazi crimes.

Related articles:

Ex-Nazi guard John Demjanjuk may be deported from U.S. soon

Former Nazi SS officer convicted by Italy, denied bail by Canada

French Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon dies at 96

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1.	Pursuing small-fry	20:25	\|	twitch	01/10/07

2.	twitch,disband your local police,they mostly catch small fry	21:18	\|	Absolute Sweden	01/10/07

3.	hypocritical	21:50	\|	Leona	01/10/07

4.	Misunderstanding	22:58	\|	Khalid	01/10/07

5.	Aren`t IDF and US army using dogs in a similar way	03:16	\|	nobodysacred	02/10/07

6.	twitch	04:00	\|	bobby	02/10/07

7.	He "only trained" dogs at Dachau and Buchenwald...	04:37	\|	Fortuna Benmayor	02/10/07

8.	What They Ought To Do...	04:40	\|	Yosemite	02/10/07

9.	re #1, twitch	04:51	\|	David	02/10/07

10.	re: #3, Leona`s hypocritical	04:55	\|	David	02/10/07

11.	Is anyone checking on those ex-Nazi dogs?	05:33	\|	Natallie Durson	02/10/07

12.	Leona, same with the the Communist USSR	06:14	\|	Jake	02/10/07

13.	Most people lost of the woods die of Shame!	06:49	\|	Lisa	02/10/07

14.	to #9 David: Do you have references/sources	13:20	\|	nobodysacred	02/10/07

15.	nobody`sscared	19:59	\|	cyclops	02/10/07

16.	U.S. seeks to deport former NAZI man	03:47	\|	Angie	04/10/07

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