PHILADELPHIA (CN) - A former Nazi concentration camp guard was properly stripped of his U.S. citizenship because he personally participated in racial persecution, the 3rd Circuit ruled.
Anton Geiser guarded the Sachsenhausen camp as a member of the Death's Head battalion. He fled the Allies at the end of World War II, emigrated to the United States in 1956 and became a citizen six years later.
The U.S. government began its attempt to revoke Geiser's citizenship in 2004 under the Refugee Relief Act, which provides for the refusal of a visa to anyone who commits racial persecution.
Geiser tried to argue that the word "persecution" is vague, but Fisher wrote that "the experiences of prisoners at Nazi concentration camps fit plainly within the meaning of 'persecution.'"
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