Anton Baumann, a Wisconsin residing whose U.S. citizenship was revoked for failing to reveal his wartime activities as a Nazi SS guard, has agreed not to contest deportation proceedings against him.
But under the terms of a settlement reached last month, the U.S. Justice Department has agreed not to oppose Baumann’s application for a stay of deportation on the grounds of ill health, according to an announcement by the department.
This means that Baumann, 81, who lives in a Milwaukee suburb, will likely never have to leave the country because his rapidly declining health would make actual deportation life-threatening.
At a hearing in U.S. Immigration Court on Monday, Baumann, a native of Yugoslavia, admitted his service in the SS Death’s Head Battalion at the Stutthof and Buchenwald concentration camps.
He also admitted that he had assisted in the mass persecution of civilians at the two camps, both in Germany.
The court found Baumann deportable on all the charges brought by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which prosecutes Nazis in this country.
Baumann had already been stripped of his U.S. citizenship in May 1991.
Baumann was brought into this week’s hearing in a wheelchair. In January, he underwent coronary surgery and is under medical care for a variety of problems, according to court documents.
“Baumann will be able to get a stay of deportation so long as there is no improvement of his medical condition, If improved, however, he can be deported,” a Justice Department official said. “He will still have to convince the court that he is really too ill.”
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.
