A Latvian refugee, Theodor Daniloff, who was charged by a HIAS representative with being a former Gestapo officer who tortured Jews in a Nazi concentration camp, was detained yesterday by U.S. immigration authorities at Ellis Island. He was one of the 549 displaced persons who arrived here yesterday on the Marine Flasher from Germany, under the DP immigration law.
Simon Mirkin, the HIAS representative, was himself a victim of Daniloff. He told immigration officials that Daniloff beat him and, using a lighted cigarette, burned him in a concentration camp in Riga, during the Nazi occupation of Latvia, in an attempt to make him turn informant against Jews imprisoned in the camp. After the war, Mirkin worked for HIAS in Germany and entered the United States two years ago. He serves as a HIAS reception official for newly-arriving DP’s.
When the Marine Flasher docked yesterday, Mirkin spotted Daniloff aboard the ship. He recognized him as his former tormentor and reported him to the U.S. immigration officials, who transferred Daniloff and his family to Ellis Island pending an investigation. Daniloff became an UNRRA official after Germany surrendered.
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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.
