Report: Recently-Deported Nazi Guard Bought His Queens Home From Holocaust Survivors
- 6 years ago
Jakiw Palij, the Nazi concentration camp guard who was deported on Monday, reportedly bought his Queens home from Holocaust survivors who were unaware of his past.
Jakiw Palij, the Nazi concentration camp guard who was deported on Monday, reportedly bought his Queens home from Holocaust survivors who were unaware of his past. The son of the now-deceased couple told the New York Post on Tuesday that if his father had known, "I don't think [Palij] would have gotten out of that house alive." Palij managed to fool a lot of people for a very long time. After lying about his activities during World War II, he was given permission to immigrate to the U.S. in 1949, granted citizenship in 1957, and purchased the two-story home in Queens in 1966, notes the Daily Mail. According to NBC News, it wasn't until nearly thirty years ago that his name was found on a Nazi roster. Palij, who claimed to have spent the war working on farms and in factories, had actually been serving as a guard at the Trawniki concentration camp in Poland, where 6,000 Jews were shot to death in a single massacre. He was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 2003 and ordered to be deported not long after, but remained in the U.S. as no country would take him, reports the Washington Post. Germany recently agreed to allow him entry and on Monday, at the age of 95, Palij was arrested and soon after flown to Düsseldorf. At this time, there is reportedly not enough evidence to bring charges against him.
Jakiw Palij, the Nazi concentration camp guard who was deported on Monday, reportedly bought his Queens home from Holocaust survivors who were unaware of his past. The son of the now-deceased couple told the New York Post on Tuesday that if his father had known, "I don't think [Palij] would have gotten out of that house alive." Palij managed to fool a lot of people for a very long time. After lying about his activities during World War II, he was given permission to immigrate to the U.S. in 1949, granted citizenship in 1957, and purchased the two-story home in Queens in 1966, notes the Daily Mail. According to NBC News, it wasn't until nearly thirty years ago that his name was found on a Nazi roster. Palij, who claimed to have spent the war working on farms and in factories, had actually been serving as a guard at the Trawniki concentration camp in Poland, where 6,000 Jews were shot to death in a single massacre. He was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 2003 and ordered to be deported not long after, but remained in the U.S. as no country would take him, reports the Washington Post. Germany recently agreed to allow him entry and on Monday, at the age of 95, Palij was arrested and soon after flown to Düsseldorf. At this time, there is reportedly not enough evidence to bring charges against him.