A federal judge in Memphis is ordering a Tennessee man out of the country due to his Nazi service during World War Two.
The U.S. Department of Justice says Friedrich Karl Berger served as a guard in a concentration camp in Germany. Justice Dept officials say that Berger did disclose that he was a member of the Nazi Navy when he entered the U.S. in 1959. He lawfully entered the U.S. because a law barring the entry of people who assisted in Nazi persecution had expired in 1957.
The DOJ says Berger is being sent back to Germany under a 1978 immigration law because he willingly assisted in Nazi-sponsored persecution.
Berger says he was 19 and ordered to join the Nazi's or die. He never killed anyone as he served in the Navy and his ship never was in a battle in the 10 months he was in the Navy. The last month of the war he was transferred to a concentration camp to work as a guard.
He's been living in Tennessee for over 50 years! He is shocked. "After 75 years, this is ridiculous. I cannot believe it. I cannot understand how this can happen in a country like this. You’re forcing me out of my home. You're separating me from my children and grandchildren when I was a victim of the Nazi's too"!