U.S. deports accused Auschwitz guard to Austria

Hammer, shown in 1996, was found to have been a Nazi SS guard at Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen

March 14, 2000
Web posted at: 6:48 p.m. EST (2348 GMT)

In this story: Found to have been a guard at 2 camps Lost U.S. citizenship in 1966 RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday asked the Austrian government to consider criminal charges against an accused former Auschwitz guard deported Monday from the United States to Austria.

But Reuters reported that the Justice Ministry in Vienna, Austria, said it would not prosecute Croatian-born Ferdinand Hammer because it did not have proof that he was involved in crimes against humanity during World War II.

"We're not taking legal action. There's no proof, not from the American side either," Stefan Benner, a spokesman at the Justice Ministry, told Reuters.

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The 78-year-old Hammer, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, has denied serving as a Nazi guard, although he has admitted being a member of Waffen SS combat forces during World War II.

Only hours after Hammer arrived in Vienna, Eli Rosenbaum, chief of the U.S. government's Nazi-hunting office, called Austrian officials to urge a criminal investigation.

"He encouraged Austria to investigate the facts to see if a criminal prosecution is warranted," said Justice spokesman John Russell.

Hammer's long legal battle to remain in the United States ended two weeks ago when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a court order that he be deported.

The retired foundry supervisor was ordered deported in 1997 on a finding that in 1944 and 1945 he was a Nazi SS guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland and at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside Berlin.

Hammer was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 1966 for misrepresenting his service as an armed SS guard when he applied to be a U.S. citizen in 1963. He also had not disclosed his Nazi role when he entered the United States from Austria in 1955.

At least 1 million people, the overwhelming majority of them Jews, were murdered at Auschwitz.

Hammer was initially ordered deported to Croatia, which controls the area of the former Yugoslavia where he was born. When Croatia refused to accept Hammer, Austria agreed to readmit him.

Producer Terry Frieden and Reuters contributed to this report.

U.S. Department of Justice
Republic of Austria
Republic of Croatia
A Cybrary of the Holocaust

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