U.S. v. Friedrich
| Citation | 305 F.Supp.2d 1101 |
| Decision Date | 24 February 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 4:02-CV-1075(CEJ).,4:02-CV-1075(CEJ). |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Adam FRIEDRICH, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri |
David W. Folts, U.S. Department of Justice, Special Investigations, Criminal Div., Eli Rosenbaum, U.S. Department of Justice, Special Investigations, Criminal Div., Elizabeth B. White, U.S. Department of Justice, Special Investigations, Criminal Div., Washington, DC, Maria C. Sanchez, Office of U.S. Attorney, St. Louis, Susan L. Siegal, U.S. Department of Justice, Special Investigations, Criminal Div., William H. Kenety, V, U.S. Department of Justice, Special Investigations, Criminal Div., Washington, DC, for USA, Plaintiff.
D. Warren Hoff, Jr., St. Louis, MO, for Adams Friedrich, Defendant.
This matter is before the Court on plaintiff's motion for summary judgment. Defendant opposes the motion and the issues are fully briefed.
The United States brings this action to revoke the citizenship of defendant Adam Friedrich under Section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, (INA) 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a). Friedrich entered the United States in 1955 pursuant to a visa obtained under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953(RRA), Pub.L. No. 203, 67 Stat. 400, as amended, 68 Stat. 1044 (1954), and obtained naturalization thereafter. It subsequently became known that Friedrich had been a member of the Waffen SS during World War II and that he had served as a guard at three German concentration camps. The government contends that Friedrich's service in the Waffen SS made him ineligible for a visa under the RRA and therefore ineligible for naturalization.
Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that summary judgment shall be entered "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." In ruling on a motion for summary judgment the court is required to view the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and must give that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts. AgriStor Leasing v. Farrow, 826 F.2d 732, 734 (8th Cir.1987). The moving party bears the burden of showing both the absence of a genuine issue of material fact and its entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Once the moving party has met its burden, the non-moving party may not rest on the allegations of his pleadings but must set forth specific facts, by affidavit or other evidence, showing that a genuine issue of material fact exists. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e). Rule 56(c) "mandates the entry of summary judgment, after adequate time for discovery and upon motion, against a party who fails to make a showing sufficient to establish the existence of an element essential to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Celotex Corporation v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).
Defendant Adam Friedrich was born in 1921 in Hatzfeld, Romania, to ethnic German parents. To avoid entering the Romanian army, Friedrich illegally crossed the border into Yugoslavia in 1941. He remained there for about two months before being employed by the East German Agricultural Company as a laborer. He became dissatisfied with the working conditions and sought different employment but was told he was subject to a work contract from which he could be released only for military service. Friedrich was turned away from the Wehrmacht, the German Armed Forces, because he was not a German citizen. He joined the Waffen SS instead and began active duty on October 1, 1942.
In January 1943, after completing basic training, Friedrich was transferred to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp where he was assigned to the Totenkopf, or Death's Head, unit. The Death's Head unit operated and guarded concentration camps. United States v. Negele, 222 F.3d 443, 445 (8th Cir.2000). Among the 100,000 prisoners at Gross-Rosen in Janaury 1943 were civilian Jews, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Gypsies and Jehovah's Witnesses. The prisoners received inadequate nutrition, clothing, and medical care and were used as slave labor in the nearby stone quarry. Nearly 1,500 prisoners died at Gross-Rosen during the first five months of 1943.
The Death's Head unit guards at Gross-Rosen rotated among several duties, including guarding the camp perimeters at night, escorting work-details to the quarry, and guarding the prisoners while at the quarry. The guards were instructed to shoot prisoners who attempted escape. Friedrich's duties were to prevent prisoners from escaping from the camp and to guard them while they worked outside the camp. Friedrich denies ever witnessing an escape. Although he always carried a loaded rifle while on duty, Friedrich denies that he ever fired his weapon.
In August 1943, Friedrich was one of about 60 guards that escorted a group of approximately 200 prisoners from Gross-Rosen to the Dyhenfurth camp. Friedrich remained at Dyhenfurth until January 1945. During that period he married and his first child was born. His duties at Dyhenfurth were much the same as they had been at Gross-Rosen.
When the Soviet Red Army advanced on Dyhenfurth in January 1945 the camp was evacuated. Friedrich was one of 100 to 150 guards who marched a group of about 1,000 prisoners back to Gross-Rosen. Friedrich testified that the march took several days during which prisoners and guards slept in open fields at night. Friedrich testified that the prisoners may not have received any food and that they had no blankets. Evidence in the record indicates that several prisoners died during the evacuation from Dyhenfurth. Friedrich denies that he observed any deaths.
Gross-Rosen was evacuated in early February 1945. Friedrich was among the detail that escorted approximately 1,000 prisoners to the Flossenburg concentration camp. He testified that the prisoners marched for about a day to a functioning railroad where they were then were loaded onto cattle cars. The rail journey took about a day and a half, during which prisoners were provided no food or sanitation facilities. Flossenburg received thousands of prisoners as other camps were evacuated. Large numbers of prisoners died as a result of inadequate food, medical treatment, and brutality.
In April 1945, Flossenburg was evacuated as Allied forces advanced. Friedrich accompanied prisoners on an evacuation march toward the Dachau concentration camp. The group was overtaken on the road by American soldiers. Friedrich testified that he and the other guards abandoned the prisoners and scattered into the woods. He discarded his rifle and dog tags immediately and, when he found other clothes to wear, he discarded his uniform.
Friedrich reunited with his wife and family in Austria, and they remained there for ten years. In 1953, he applied for a visa to the United States through the National Council of Churches. His visa application stated that he was in the Romanian army from 1941 to 1942, and the German Army from 1942 to 1945. The application made no mention of his service with the Waffen SS or his duty at the concentration camps. Friedrich traveled to the United States Embassy in Salzburg, where he was interviewed by several people from different agencies. Friedrich testified that he was not asked whether he had served in the SS and he did not volunteer that information. On February 10, 1955, U.S. State Department Vice Consul David Jelinek issued Friedrich a visa. Jelinek testified at deposition that he would not have issued Friedrich the visa if he had known that Friedrich had served as a concentration camp guard. Friedrich was naturalized on May 4, 1962, by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and received Naturalization Certificate No. 8497460.
In opposing summary judgment, Friedrich does not dispute the government's evidence regarding the conditions at the three camps where he was a guard. Rather, Friedrich disputes what he terms the government's "implication" that he personally whipped, beat, tortured, abused, and shot any prisoners. The record contains no testimony linking Friedrich to specific acts of brutality and the government does not make any contention that he engaged in such acts.
The issue before the Court at this stage is whether Friedrich's acknowledged service as an armed concentration camp guard while a member of the Death's Head unit rendered him ineligible for the visa he received under the RRA. Friedrich argues that the government cannot prevail in the absence of evidence that he personally engaged in acts of persecution.
The right to acquire American citizenship is precious, and once acquired, its loss can have severe consequences. Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S. 490, 505, 101 S.Ct. 737, 66 L.Ed.2d 686 (1981); Costello v. United States, 365 U.S. 265, 269, 81 S.Ct. 534, 5 L.Ed.2d 551 (1961). The government's burden of proof in a proceeding to divest a naturalized citizen of his citizenship is accordingly a heavy one. Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 505, 101 S.Ct. 737; Costello, 365 U.S. at 269, 81 S.Ct. 534. The evidence justifying revocation of citizenship must be "clear, unequivocal, and convincing," and may not "leave the issue in doubt." Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 505, 101 S.Ct. 737 (internal quotations and citations omitted). At the same time, Congress alone has the constitutional authority to prescribe rules for naturalization, and courts must insist on...
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U.S. v. Hansl
...matter, there existed only one case dealing directly with denaturalization founded upon entry under the RRA. See United States v. Friedrich, 305 F.Supp.2d 1101 (E.D.Mo.2004). The facts of Friedrich are identical in many ways to those now before the Court. Friedrich, an ethnic German born in......