Trial opens for alleged Nazi guard

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The Justice Department is seeking to deport a Georgia resident accused of lying about his Nazi past to immigrate to the United States.

Paul Henss, 85, a German citizen living in Lawrenceville, Ga., volunteered to serve the Nazi SS during World War II and served as an attack dog handler at both the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, according to the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations.

The OSI charges that Henss concealed his concentration camp service when he entered the United States in 1955. An immigration judge in Atlanta began hearing the case this week. If found guilty, Henss, who is not a U.S. citizen, will be deported to Germany.

The OSI also alleges that Henns voluntarily served in an elite Waffen SS combat unit before becoming a dog handler in 1942. Henss reportedly instructed other concentration camp guards in the use of attack dogs, which were trained to bite prisoners “without mercy” if they tried to escape.

“The brutal concentration camp system could not have functioned without the determined efforts of SS men such as Paul Henss, who with a vicious attack dog stood between these victims and the possibility of freedom,” said OSI director Eli Rosenbaum.

 

 

 

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