The Supreme Court has denied an appeal from an accused Nazi concentration camp guard who was stripped of his U.S. citizenship for lying about his wartime activities.
Michael Schmidt was ordered last year by a federal judge to surrender his citizenship, a decision upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court denied his appeal without comment.
Schmidt has denied any involvement in Nazi crimes, including a charge by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations that he served as an armed guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was also accused by OSI of serving as a member of the Death Head’s Battalion.
Neal Sher, director of OSI, said that with the Supreme Court denial, “we’ll be moving to get him deported.” The deportation proceedings would take place in Chicago, Schmidt’s place of residence, Sher said.
Sher explained that it has been “routine” for the Supreme Court to refuse to hear such appeals by accused Nazi war criminals and that only once, in the case of Feodor Fedorenko, did it agree to consider the appeal, which it ultimately rejected. He was deported to the Soviet Union.
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.
