Bail was denied for a second time today to Mrs. Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan who faces extradition to West Germany for possible trial for alleged war crimes when she was a guard at Maidanek and other Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Mrs. Ryan, who is married to an American citizen, was taken into custody last week and has been confined at the women’s prison on Rikers Island.
Her initial request for bail was denied Thursday by Federal Judge Jacob Mishler. United States Attorney Robert A. Morse opposed the setting of any bail for Mrs. Ryan. A staff assistant, U.S. Attorney Mary P. Maguire, explained that the 1931 extradition treaty with Germany precluded for 30 days any consideration of bail for persons being held for extradition hearings. Mrs. Ryan’s hearing will be held within 30 days of her detention. No date has been announced.
Deportation hearings against the former concentration camp guard, conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, were suspended March 20 after it was learned that extradition requests had been filed for Mrs. Ryan by both the West German and Polish governments. Mrs. Ryan lost her U.S. citizenship in 1971 after it was determined that in applying for it she had concealed her conviction by an Austrian court in 1949 on charges of torturing concentration camp inmates.
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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.
