WASHINGTON— The Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA) strongly praised and thanked U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell for the deportation of a Nazi war criminal to Germany.
95-year-old Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi prison guard, was deported on Tuesday, 14 years after a U.S. court ordered his deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials removed Jakiw Palij from his home in Queens, New York.
‘’President Trump commends his administration’s comprehensive actions, especially ICE’s actions, in removing this war criminal from US soil,” the White House press secretary said in a statement.
“Palij had lied about being a Nazi and remained in the United States for decades. Palij’s removal sends a strong message: The United States will not tolerate those who facilitated Nazi crimes and other human rights violations, and they will not find a safe haven on American soil,” the statement added.
Palij is believed to be the last known Nazi collaborator living in the United States. He was born in an area of Poland now within Ukraine. He was an armed guard at the Trawniki Labor Camp, which had an indispensable role in a massacre of approximately 6,000 Jews in 1943.
He arrived in the US in 1949, and was granted citizenship in 1957. After his wartime history was uncovered, Palij was stripped of his citizenship and ordered deported by a US judge. But the order was not carried out for years, in large part because no other country agreed to take him.
In the past, Germany repeatedly stated that it would not accept Palij since he was not a German citizen.
The White House said that Germany agreed to accept Palij “through extensive negotiations.”