Posted on 08/01/2003 7:58:14 AM PDT by knighthawk
Judge raps Queens man
A 79-year-old suspected former Nazi camp guard now living in Queens was stripped of his citizenship by a federal judge.
Jakiw Palij, who allegedly served as an armed guard in the notorious Trawniki slave labor camp in Poland, where 6,000 Jews were slaughtered in a two-day massacre in 1943, now faces deportation.
The SS-sponsored spree at Trawniki - code-named Operation Harvest Festival - along with the murders of 36,000 at two other camps in Poland, was the largest two-day German killing operation against Jews during World War II, according to court papers.
Federal prosecutors did not accuse Palij of personally committing any atrocities, but that didn't get him off the hook, Brooklyn Federal Judge Allyne Ross ruled yesterday.
"Service as an armed guard at a forced-labor camp or concentration camp constitutes assistance in the Nazi program of persecution, regardless of whether [Palij] personally injured or killed his victims," Ross said.
The judge noted in her 25-page decision that the majority of statements from former Trawniki guards say they performed guard duty while Germans did the killing.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said Palij has blood on his hands.
"By guarding the prisoners held under inhumane conditions at Trawniki, Jakiw Palij prevented their escape and directly contributed to their eventual slaughter at the hands of the Nazis," Mauskopf said.
The feds amassed five volumes of evidence that Palij had served in the SS, including battalion rosters containing his name.
Lied to feds
Two years ago, Palij admitted under oath to a government investigator that he was present at Trawniki.
Palij lied about his wartime service on his application for a U.S. visa in 1949, falsely saying he had worked on his father's farm in Poland and at a factory in Germany from 1942 to 1945.
Palij, a retired draftsman, could not be reached for comment at his home in Jackson Heights, Queens. His wife, Maria, was shocked to learn her husband's citizenship was being revoked.
"After 50 years?" she said.
Asked about the prospect that he may be kicked out of the country, Maria Palij said: "I am not even thinking about that."
If Palij's lawyer appeals the decision, that will stop the clock on deportation proceedings.
The lawyer, Ivars Berzins, refused to take calls from reporters yesterday.
The feds also are seeking to deport a second alleged Trawniki guard, Jaroslaw Bilaniuk, who allegedly was a buddy of Palij's and also lives in Queens.
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