A 75-year-old retired factory worker, Feador Fedorenko of Philadelphia, has been ordered deported for concealing his wartime work as an armed guard at the Treblinka death camp.
The deportation was ordered by Gordon Socks, a federal immigration judge, who ruled in a 27-page order that Fedorenko “assisted in the persecution of persons because of race or religion “between 1942 and 1945 as a guard at a Nazi death camp in occupied Poland. Judge Sacks ordered Fedorenko deported to the Soviet Union, where he was born, but it was reported that it was not certain the Soviet Union would accept him.
Brian Gildes, of New Haven, Fedorenko’s attorney, said he had not talked to his client since the deportation ruling was made but he felt Fedorenko would appeal the ruling.
Under the order, Fedorenko has until March 8 to file an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Va. After the appeals board acts, the case could be heard by a federal circuit court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
On January 21, 1981 the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, revoked Fedorenko’s citizenship, which he received in 1970, holding that Fedorenko has “illegally” obtained his citizenship because he had lied about his past when he entered the United States in 1949.
A federal court judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ruled in Fedorenko’s favor in 1977, saying the government had not proved that he committed any atrocities. The court also upheld Fedorenko’s contention that when he was captured by the Germans in 1941 he had been forced to serve as a guard in Treblinka A five-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned the ruling in 1979, saying that Fedorenko had illegally concealed his wartime role. The decision set the stage for the Supreme Court ruling.
The Supreme Court decision set the stage for the deportation hearing. Judge Sacks, who normally presides in Buffalo, heard the case in New Haven in July 1981. Fedorenko worked for 20 years in a factory in Waterbury, Conn, before moving to Philadelphia.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
