NEW YORK, Sept. 15 (JTA) – The U.S. Department of
Justice has moved to revoke the citizenship of a Pennsylvania man
who allegedly served as a guard at two SS-run labor camps and helped liquidate the Warsaw
Ghetto. According to a complaint filed last week, Fedir Kwoczak, 76, participated in Operation Reinhard, a Nazi program that orchestrated the murders of nearly 2 million Polish Jews, the complaint said. Kwoczak allegedly was stationed at Trawniki and Poniatowa, SS camps where thousands of Jews were incarcerated and later murdered. In April 1943, Kwoczak allegedly was among a battalion of guards who liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto. By mid-May, 50,000 Jews had been shot or sent to Treblinka, Majdanek and other forced labor camps. In August 1943, Kwoczak allegedly assisted in the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Bialystok, Poland. Between 25,000 and 30,000 residents were sent to Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek and other camps. In 1949, Kwoczak misrepresented his wartime activities on a U.S. visa application, according to the Justice Department. Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, said, “Kwoczak never would have received a U.S. visa had he disclosed the truth.”
