Failure to appear at a deportation hearing a week ago led to the arrest here yesterday of John Demjanjuk, 61, a Ukrainian-born auto worker who was stripped of his American citizenship for having lied about his World War II Nazi activities when he applied for naturalization in 1958.
Demjanjuk’s citizenship was ordered revoked by Federal Judge Frank Battisti on June 23, 1981 after a five-months trial, a ruling which cleared the way for U.S. authorities to initiate deportation proceedings which were to have started July 12.
Demjanjuk, who denied charges he tortured thousands of Jewish prisoners and herded them into gas chambers in concentration camps in occupied Poland, was taken into custody at a federal courthouse.
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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.