The U.S. Justice Department has initiated denaturalization proceedings against Stefan Reger, 65, an alleged SS guard at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration/death camp during World War II.
The Justice Department accuses Reger, a resident of Yardville, N.J., of lying about his alleged SS past to immigration officials when he entered the United States in 1952. He became a citizen in 1957.
According to the Justice Department, Reger, a native of Filipovo, Yugoslavia, was an SS guard at Auschwitz-Birkenau between March 1943 and January 1945. Reger had said he served in the 91st Grenadier Regiment of the German Army between 1943 and March 5, 1945, and from then until April 29, 1945 as a private in the Waffen SS, the combat arm of the SS.
Reger reportedly told an agent of the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps in 1952 that he received the blood-typing tattoo given by the SS. These tattoos were generally placed under the arm.
In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Trenton, N.J., the Justice Department alleged that Reger was an SS Death’s Head guard at Auschwitz-Birkenau, overseeing the “confinement, torture, forced labor and execution of thousands of prisoners” and their transfer between camps.
Reger would not speak to the press or reveal the name of his lawyer, who reportedly advised him to remain silent. A woman who answered his phone later said he was not home.
Neal Sher, director of the Office of Special Investigations of the Justice Department, said Reger had been “wrongly naturalized.” He said that Reger had been identified by comparing archives from foreign nations with immigration records.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
