AUSCHWITZ GUARD

page 3

"I love this country," he said.
"I am no criminal."
He has seven more days to ap-
peal the deportation order.
Mr. Hammer's attorney,
William Bufalino, told the De-
troit Free Press that his client is
appealing Judge Gilmore's rul-
ing. He did not return calls from
The Jewish News.
Although Mr. Hammer is the
first Nazi whose homeland no
longer exists, it is not the first
time the issue of where to deport
war criminals has been raised.
Probably the most famous case
involved another former Michi-
gan resident, Archbishop Valer-
ian Trifa.
The Justice Department
charged Archbishop Trifa,
who lived in Grass Lake,
with being a member of the
According to the Department of dreaded Iron Guard, which
Justice, Ferdinand Hammer was a actively persecuted Jews.
guard at the Sachsenhausen, The archbishop, head of the
Auschwitz and Flossenburg Romanian Orthodox Church
prison/death camps.
in the United States, insist-
Auschwitz, located at the south- ed he himself had been a vic-
ern border of Poland near Czecho- tim of Nazi persecution.
slovakia, was established by order
of Heinrich Himmler. The Nazis'
largest death camp, it comprised
four camps including the most in-
famous, Auschwitz II, also known
as Birkenau. Between 1 million and
2.5 million prisoners, almost all of
whom were Jewish, died at
Auschwitz. It was liberated in 1945
by the Soviet army. The Depart-
ment of Justice alleges that Mr.
Hammer was a guard there from
December 1944 to mid-January
1945.
Sachsenhausen was located
just north of Berlin. Established in
1936, it was a concentration camp
In 1980, five years after
for Jews and political prisoners the Justice Department be-
(mostly Soviets) upon whom med- gan proceedings, Archbish-
ical experiments were routinely con- op Trifa relinquished his
ducted. Virtually all Jewish naturalization papers —
prisoners interred there eventually even as he continued to in-
were sent to Auschwitz. Mr. Ham-
sist he had done nothing
mer allegedly was there from mid- wrong. (Defendants may re-
January 1945 until mid-February main in the United States
1945.
as long as their case is be-
Flossenburg, in Bavaria, was a ing appealed.)
slave labor camp established in
Initially, Archbishop Tri-
1938. The average life span of a pris- fa was to be sent to Roma-
oner there was nine months. Mr. nia, though he said he
Hammer allegedly worked at feared for his life were he to
Flossenburg from mid-February return. He eventually was
1945 until May 1945. LI
deported to Portugal, where
he died in 1987.
That same year the Justice
dered thousands of Jews and
Department
moved to deport
other prisoners.
Mr. Hammer insisted the OSI Clinton Township resident Jo-
had the wrong man, saying he hann Leprich, who initially
never worked in . Auschwitz or protested his innocence but
any other death camp and that eventually confessed to having
he had served only in the "Ger- lied about his Nazi past when
man Army SS," an organization he applied for American citi-
zenship.
that never existed.
A Romanian native who
He later admitted he had
been a member of the Waffen served with the Death's Head
SS, but said he had been forced Battalion and as a guard at
to join when the Nazis invaded Mauthausen, Mr. Leprich
Yugoslavia. He claimed he was nonetheless insisted he "never
"as much a victim of the Nazis hurt, mistreat or killed] any hu-
as were many other individuals," man being."
Mr. Leprich immigrated to
and told the court he wanted
nothing more than to live out his Canada rather than face depor-

where he lived several years af-
ter the war. He applied for U.S.
citizenship in 1963.
Proceedings against him be-
gan on Dec. 13, 1994, when the
Justice Department filed a com-
plaint in U.S. District Court
charging Mr. Hammer, a retired
tool-and-die maker, with having
lied about his wartime activities
both on his application for a visa
and on his petition for U.S. cit-
izenship.
According to the OSI, Mr.
Hammer was a member of the
Death's Head Battalion of the
Waffen-SS, an elite military
group that tortured and mur-

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Death Lived Here

Mr. Hammer
insisted he
never worked in
Auschwitz
or any other
death camp.

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