A Chicago-area man who acknowledged he was an SS guard at a Nazi concentration camp has voluntarily left the United States rather than face deportation hearings.
Michael Schmidt, who was stripped of his U.S. citizenship three years ago, left the country for Austria, from which he planned to go to Germany, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
He promised never to return to the United States.
Schmidt, 69, a retired school janitor from Lincolnwood, III., signed an agreement three years ago with the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations saying he had participated in Nazi-sponsored persecution at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. He admitted having been a member of the SS Death’s Head Battalion.
The Sachsenhausen camp was the scene of many atrocities, including killings by various means and grotesque medical experiments.
Although he initially denied the government’s charges against him, Schmidt later acknowledged he had lied about his wartime activities when he applied for admission to the United States in 1952 and on his citizenship application.
Deportation proceedings against Schmidt were begun in December 1991. Last June, he agreed to leave the country.
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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.
