Devildogg4ever
08-01-03, 03:28 AM
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
or decades, Jakiw Palij lived in Queens like many exiles from the chaos of World War II, fitting in gradually to a new life in a new country.
Yesterday, a federal judge stripped him of his American citizenship and paved the way for his deportation, saying he had been an armed guard at an SS slave labor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, and that he lied about his past when he came to this country in 1949.
The Justice Department provided "convincing and unequivocal evidence that defendant assisted in the persecution of civilians," Judge Allyne R. Ross of Brooklyn federal court said.
Mr. Palij, 79, presented what lawyers say is a confrontational but not unknown defense in deportation cases stemming from the Nazi era. He introduced no evidence and declared that the government's case was based on "an expression of opinion about history."
Since 1979, the Justice Department has won deportations of 57 people its lawyers argued assisted in Nazi persecution. Lawyers familiar with those cases say challenging the historical record of the Holocaust and certain events during it was a defense in some of those cases.
Justice Department lawyers presented Judge Ross with five volumes of historical documents to support their claims that Mr. Palij served in the SS and was a guard at the Trawniki camp in occupied Poland at a time when 6,000 Jewish prisoners were fatally shot there.
Those materials included rosters of units that committed atrocities, showing that Mr. Palij was a member. The government did not present evidence that he participated in any killings.
Part of the government's case was an analysis by Peter Black, a senior historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, who concluded that the records showed Mr. Palij "served as an armed guard of civilian prisoners at a forced-labor camp for Jews at Trawniki."
Although Mr. Palij, before the Justice Department began its deportation proceeding last year, acknowledged to a government investigator that he was a trainee at Trawniki, during the proceeding he refused to answer questions, citing his right against self-incrimination.
Confronted with the Dr. Black's detailed analysis of Mr. Palij's background, Mr. Palij's lawyer, Ivars Berzins, told Judge Ross that Dr. Black was a former employee of the Justice Department unit that pursues former Nazis, the Office of Special Investigations. Mr. Berzins said Dr. Black "carries with him the stigma of that office."
A secretary at Mr. Berzins's office in Babylon, N.Y., said yesterday that he was not interested in speaking with reporters. There was no answer yesterday at Mr. Palij's home on a tree-lined street in Jackson Heights. Mr. Palij, a retired draftsman, and his wife of 43 years have no children.
The Justice Department's case against Mr. Palij is one of three deportation proceedings now under way involving men who have spent the last five decades in New York. According to evidence submitted by the Justice Department, the three remained friends in New York and their names appear next to each other on the roster of a unit at Trawniki.
After Mr. Berzins presented no evidence, Justice Department lawyers urged Judge Ross to order the deportation without a trial. Such a ruling is permissible in a civil case like a deportation proceeding when one side presents a legally compelling case and there are no disputes about the facts.
Although he had not presented evidence to contradict the government's claims, Mr. Berzins argued that a trial was "necessary to dispel serious doubts on critical issues." An appeal of Judge Ross's ruling could delay a deportation for years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/01/nyregion/01GUAR.html?ex=1060401600&en=a73102941a8d60da&ei=5 062&partner=GOOGLE
or decades, Jakiw Palij lived in Queens like many exiles from the chaos of World War II, fitting in gradually to a new life in a new country.
Yesterday, a federal judge stripped him of his American citizenship and paved the way for his deportation, saying he had been an armed guard at an SS slave labor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, and that he lied about his past when he came to this country in 1949.
The Justice Department provided "convincing and unequivocal evidence that defendant assisted in the persecution of civilians," Judge Allyne R. Ross of Brooklyn federal court said.
Mr. Palij, 79, presented what lawyers say is a confrontational but not unknown defense in deportation cases stemming from the Nazi era. He introduced no evidence and declared that the government's case was based on "an expression of opinion about history."
Since 1979, the Justice Department has won deportations of 57 people its lawyers argued assisted in Nazi persecution. Lawyers familiar with those cases say challenging the historical record of the Holocaust and certain events during it was a defense in some of those cases.
Justice Department lawyers presented Judge Ross with five volumes of historical documents to support their claims that Mr. Palij served in the SS and was a guard at the Trawniki camp in occupied Poland at a time when 6,000 Jewish prisoners were fatally shot there.
Those materials included rosters of units that committed atrocities, showing that Mr. Palij was a member. The government did not present evidence that he participated in any killings.
Part of the government's case was an analysis by Peter Black, a senior historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, who concluded that the records showed Mr. Palij "served as an armed guard of civilian prisoners at a forced-labor camp for Jews at Trawniki."
Although Mr. Palij, before the Justice Department began its deportation proceeding last year, acknowledged to a government investigator that he was a trainee at Trawniki, during the proceeding he refused to answer questions, citing his right against self-incrimination.
Confronted with the Dr. Black's detailed analysis of Mr. Palij's background, Mr. Palij's lawyer, Ivars Berzins, told Judge Ross that Dr. Black was a former employee of the Justice Department unit that pursues former Nazis, the Office of Special Investigations. Mr. Berzins said Dr. Black "carries with him the stigma of that office."
A secretary at Mr. Berzins's office in Babylon, N.Y., said yesterday that he was not interested in speaking with reporters. There was no answer yesterday at Mr. Palij's home on a tree-lined street in Jackson Heights. Mr. Palij, a retired draftsman, and his wife of 43 years have no children.
The Justice Department's case against Mr. Palij is one of three deportation proceedings now under way involving men who have spent the last five decades in New York. According to evidence submitted by the Justice Department, the three remained friends in New York and their names appear next to each other on the roster of a unit at Trawniki.
After Mr. Berzins presented no evidence, Justice Department lawyers urged Judge Ross to order the deportation without a trial. Such a ruling is permissible in a civil case like a deportation proceeding when one side presents a legally compelling case and there are no disputes about the facts.
Although he had not presented evidence to contradict the government's claims, Mr. Berzins argued that a trial was "necessary to dispel serious doubts on critical issues." An appeal of Judge Ross's ruling could delay a deportation for years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/01/nyregion/01GUAR.html?ex=1060401600&en=a73102941a8d60da&ei=5 062&partner=GOOGLE