The Justice Department acted yesterday in federal court here to revoke the naturalized citizenship of a German-born Chicago resident, Frank Walus, 54, on the grounds that he failed in his citizenship application to disclose he had been a wartime member of the Nazi Gestapo or war crimes, including murders of Jews, charged against him now.
The charges against Walus, who was not available for comment, stemmed from information supplied by Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter, federal prosecutor Sam Skinner told a press conference here.
Attached to the civil complaint was an affidavit from the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, charging seven specific acts of atrocity by Walus and asserting he was “particularly active in the merciless beating and mistreatment” of Jews in Czestochowa and Kielce in occupied Poland.
Walus obtained citizenship in 1970, 11 years after migrating to this country from Poland as a Polish national. The government wants his citizenship revoked so that he can be deported, probably to Poland. Walus has 60 days to answer the complaint. Court action will begin then.
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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.