Sergis Hutyrczyk, a Somerset, N.J., man whose U.S. citizenship was revoked for lying about his wartime activities, died Wednesday of natural causes.
Hutyrczyk, who was 68, had been suffering from an inoperable aneurysm in his chest.
He died at home, only one day after his lawyers filed on appeal on his behalf in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia against the order that revoked his citizenship.
The Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations first brought charges against him in August 1990.
OSI had intended to pursue deportation orders against Hutyrczyk if his appeals had failed.
Hutyrczyk, who immigrated to the United States in 1954, lost his citizenship last October based on his admission that he had served as an armed guard at the Koldyczewo concentration camp in Byelorussia, now Belarus, during World War II.
Hutyrczyk, a native of Baranowice, Byelorussia, denied he was personally responsible for any killings.
However, the government charged that he was known as the “black commander” in the concentration camp.
OSI alleged that from January 1942 to May 1945, Hutyrczyk served in the Byelorussian Schutzmannschaft, a Nazi-controlled police force which killed civilians.
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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.
