Osi Begins Citizenship Proceedings Against Ex-ss Nazi Living in Austria

The Office of Special Investigations of the U.S. Justice Department has begun proceedings to revoke the citizenship of Martin Zultner, a former resident of Chicago who served in the Waffen SS at three subcamps of the Mauthausen concentration camp during World War II.

According to the government complaint, from August 1943 until April 1945 Zultner served at the Schwechat, Floridsdorf and Modling concentration camps, on assignments including administrative aid to the SS guard supervisor and camp commandant.

The complaint alleges that Zultner’s responsibilities included assigning armed guards to accompany prisoners to slave labor sites; issuing rifles to guards; and otherwise assisting in the Nazi program of persecution, including forced labor, starvation and extermination of prisoners.

It charges that Zultner assisted in persecution based on race, religion, political opinion and national origins.

Although Zultner, 78, is a citizen of the United States and entitled to a citizen’s full rights, he has not lived in the country since 1975, when he moved to Salzburg, Austria. He had emigrated from there to the United States in 1950.

Despite the fact that he does not live in this country, denaturalization proceedings against him will continue unless he voluntarily relinquishes his citizenship.

CONFESSED TO SS ACTIVITIES

Zultner, an ethnic German, was born in September 1912 in Saros, Romania. He joined the Waffen SS in 1943 in Vienna.

Zultner was interviewed in Salzburg in May 1990 about his wartime activities, at which time he confessed to having been a corporal in the Waffen SS at the subcamps of Mauthausen, according to the OSI.

He also confessed to concealing his SS service when he applied for a U.S. visa in 1949. Zultner became a citizen in 1955.

The government charged that Zultner’s citizenship must be revoked because he obtained it illegally, and because he concealed and misrepresented his wartime activities to immigration and naturalization authorities.

Neal Sher, OSI director, said Zultner confessed to these activities during his May 1990 interview, which Zultner agreed to voluntarily. The interview took place at the U.S. Consulate in Salzburg, conducted by Eli Rosenbaum, OSI principal deputy director.

Sher had been scheduled to conduct the interview personally, but was told by Austrian authorities that he was persona non grata as an official of the U.S. government, because of a statement he made at a convening of the World Jewish Congress at the Wannsee Villa, outside of Berlin, just prior to the expected interview with Zultner.

Sher, who was at the helm of U.S. efforts to place Austrian President Kurt Waldheim on the U.S. “watch list” of undesirable aliens, said at the WIC meeting that he was proud that Waldheim remained on that list.

His statement was played up in the Austrian media, after which the Austrian Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. charge d’affairs and expressed concern over Sher’s comment and his intended visit to Salzburg on official business.

To date, 32 former Nazis have lost their American citizenship and 27 have been removed from the United States as a result of OSI investigations, which began in 1979. Over 600 people are currently under investigation by OSI.