Appeals Court Affirms Decision to Revoke U.S. Citizenship of Pittsburgh-Area Man Who Served as Nazi Concentration Camp Guard

WASHINGTON – The Third Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed a ruling by the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh revoking the U.S. citizenship of Anton Geiser of Sharon, Pa., due to his participation in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution while serving during World War II as an armed SS guard at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and other places of persecution, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania announced today.

Geiser admitted under oath that he served during most of 1943 as an armed SS guard at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp near Berlin, Germany; that his duties included escorting prisoners to slave labor sites and standing guard in the camp’s guard towers; and that he was under standing orders to shoot any prisoner attempting escape. He also admitted serving as a guard at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and its Arolsen subcamp. Prisoners held at Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald were forced to engage in hard physical labor under extraordinarily brutal conditions. Many prisoners died from exhaustion or disease and many were shot or hanged. During the period when Geiser served at Sachsenhausen, more than 3,000 prisoners were murdered or died from the brutal treatment. See, USDOJ.