VIENNA, Austria [Reuters] — A former Nazi concentration camp guard who was deported from the United States on Thursday is now a free man because he cannot be prosecuted in Austria, the Austrian justice ministry said on Friday.
Josias Kumpf, 83, who has admitted to participating in a 1943 massacre of 8,000 Jews in the Trawniki labour camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, arrived in Austria on Thursday after the United States deported him following the revocation of his citizenship.
Deported Nazi Guard a Free Man in Austria
VIENNA, Austria [Reuters] — A former Nazi concentration camp guard who was deported from the United States on Thursday is now a free man because he cannot be prosecuted in Austria, the Austrian justice ministry said on Friday.
Josias Kumpf, 83, who has admitted to participating in a 1943 massacre of 8,000 Jews in the Trawniki labour camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, arrived in Austria on Thursday after the United States deported him following the revocation of his citizenship.
Austrian justice ministry spokeswoman Katharina Swoboda said Vienna had warned U.S. authorities in the past that Austria would be unable to prosecute Kumpf because the statute of limitations relating to his crimes had expired.
“We have always pointed out to the United States that he cannot be charged here with the crimes of which he is accused,” Swoboda said.
The main reason was that Kumpf was younger than 20 at the time of the crimes.
The fact Kumpf had never been an Austrian citizen, and that the crimes which he is accused of were not committed in Austria, also made prosecution in Austria impossible, she said.
Kumpf was born in the part of Yugoslavia that is now Serbia, as a member of the ethnic German minority there. After joining the SS as a guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany, he moved on to Trawniki in German-occupied Poland.
The U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday that Kumpf helped guard around 8,000 Jewish prisoners — including some 400 children — who were shot and killed in pits at Trawniki in a special operation in November 1943.
The department cited Kumpf as saying his assignment was to watch for victims who were still “halfway alive” or “convulsing” and “shoot them to kill” if they attempted to escape.
Kumpf was deported to Austria because it was the country from which he came when he entered the United States in 1956, she said.
Swoboda said with his U.S. citizenship revoked, Kumpf was now stateless and had no residence permit in Austria, which technically made him an illegal alien.
But since he could not be extradited to another country, he would be able to stay on. He would have to register his address.
(Reporting by Boris Groendahl; Editing by Katie Nguyen)
Milhouse
And what else should he be? He committed no crimes in Austria, so Austria has nothing to charge him with, just as the USA had nothing to charge him with because he committed no crimes here. So what’s the point of the article? Was there ever a chance that he would NOT be free, either here or there? At least he’s been expelled from America, and thus suffered the punishment of exile at an advanced age, when it can’t be easy for him.
beverlyhillsprincess
to bad he’s not burning in hell :(
mm
send him to israel like they did to mengel y”sh
nice guy
hope he burns in hell!!
Boruch Nissim
BS”D
Hopefully someone will get to him soon!
Shabak?
guess
let him arrive get there quickly!!!
correcetion m.m.
its not mengel thats a prominent name in chabad…. his name was dr. mengelo
Milhouse
mm, what are you talking about? Mengele was not sent to Israel. He was never captured. He lived free, and died in Brazil at the age of 68. Boruch Hashem, at least he lived in fear of being captured, and didn’t have complete happiness.
The only Nazi I’ve ever heard of who was sent to Israel for trial is Demjanjuk, and Israel had to send him back to America, because the evidence against him was fake.
UNBELIEVABLE
someone should track him down and do to him what he helped the nazis do.
Jack
No doubt he will get whacked by the Mossad. Better justice will be served this way.
confused
why on earth is this ok? something is wrong with the picture here…. someone helped to get rid of 8000 of our own ppl, r”l, and he’s just left alone to live a normal life, no punishment, no guilt…. this worl is corrupt!
To Ill Informed mm
Unfortunalty Mengele Ym”s was never prosecuted, and supposedly died of natural causes, he was never captured, bc although the israelies had a lead on him at the time of eichman’s cature, red tape blocked them from persuing him. (politics always kills it).
CN
No known punishment would be good enough.
Justice prevails...NOT!
Hashem has ways of punishing those that deserve it! May he and all of Klal Yisroels enemies rot in Hell!
mikelasvegas
actually the truth is as follows:
Eichman was taken from Argentina and convicted in Israel. Hanged.
Mengele “supposedly” died of drowning in S. america but this was never confirmed and it was very possibly fabricated because he knew that the Israelis had a handsome reward on his head. Infact no one knows for sure what happened to him. He could technically speaking be alive today but very unlikely due to his age.
Lost
So what do we do? Pray to Hashem that he will be brought to justce, I know that much. But I just don’t understand how such a violent and terrible person can just go back to a country where he’s not even from, and no justice will come to him? There has to be something. He’s lived in realive freedom for more than 50 years in the US and now he gets to go back to Austria and do the same thing? It just seems wrong? Why is there statutes of limitations on nazi’s in the first place especially if they have proof he did it? Why does it matter if he was not yet an adult, he still made that decision. It just seems so wrong…