Visa Lawyer Blog
Our country’s commitment to bring to justice criminals against humanity is remarkable. The pursuit of Holocaust criminals shows that even after 60 years, they will face justice and be deported.
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) affirmed an order directing the removal of
Josias Kumpf, 83, due to his participation in Nazi-sponsored crimes of persecution during World War II.
The BIA adopted and affirmed the January 2007 decision of Chicago-based immigration judge Jennie L. Giambastiani, who ordered Kumpf’s removal to Germany, or, in the alternative, to Austria or Serbia. The original order was based on Kumpf’s admitted wartime service as an armed SS Death’s Head guard at the Sachsenhausen Camp; at slave labor sites in Nazi-occupied France where prisoners built launching platforms for Germany’s V-1 and V-2 missile attacks on England; and at the SS forced labor camp for Jews in Trawniki, Poland.
During the investigation of his activities, Kumpf admitted that he participated in a
November 1943 Nazi operation that bore the code-name “Aktion Erntefest” (“Operation Harvest Festival”), in which approximately 42,000 Jewish men, women and children were murdered at three camps in eastern Poland in only two days. Kumpf stood guard as approximately 8,000 Jewish prisoners – including approximately 400 children – were shot and killed in pits at Trawniki. According to Kumpf, his assignment was to watch for victims who were still “halfway alive” or “convulsing.” If any of the prisoners attempted to escape, he stated, his job was to “shoot them to kill.”
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin revoked his citizenship in May 2005.