U.S. v. Friedrich, 04-1728.

• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
• Writing for the Court: Wollman
• Citation: 402 F.3d 842
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Adam FRIEDRICH, Appellant.
• Docket Number: No. 04-1728.,04-1728.
• Decision Date: 31 March 2005

402 F.3d 842 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
v.
Adam FRIEDRICH, Appellant. No. 04-1728. United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. Submitted: February 17, 2005. Filed: March 31, 2005.

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D. Warren Hoff, Jr., argued, St. Louis, MO, for Appellant.

Jeffrey L. Menkin, argued, Senior Trial Atty., Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, DC (David W. Folts, William H. Kenety, V, Eli Rosenbaum, Susan L. Siegal, Jonathan C. Drimmer, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, Maria C. Sanchez, U.S. Attorney's Office, St. Louis, MO, on the brief), for Appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, HANSEN, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Adam Friedrich appeals from the district court's¹ order that he be denaturalized pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1451. We affirm.

I.

Friedrich was born in Romania in 1921. In 1941, he attempted to join the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) but was denied entry because he was not a German citizen. He instead volunteered for the Schutzstaffel (SS), and began active duty in October 1942. Following basic training, Friedrich was assigned to the Death's Head Battalion at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. Gross-Rosen had approximately 100,000 prisoners when Friedrich arrived in January 1943. The prisoners were used as slave labor in a nearby stone quarry and received inadequate food, clothing, and medical care. Nearly 1,500 died in the first five months of 1943.

In August 1943, Friedrich and other guards marched approximately 200 prisoners from Gross-Rosen to the Dyhenfurth concentration camp. Friedrich remained as a guard at Dyhenfurth until the camp was evacuated in January 1945. At that time, Friedrich and other guards marched approximately 1,000 prisoners more than thirty miles back to Gross-Rosen. The winter march took several days and the prisoners slept without blankets in open fields. Gross-Rosen was evacuated the following month, and Friedrich was among the guards who escorted approximately 1,000 prisoners to the Flossenburg concentration camp. After walking for nearly a day, the prisoners were loaded onto unheated cattle cars for a rail trip that lasted more than a day. The prisoners were not provided with food or sanitation facilities during the trip and many did not survive. Friedrich served as a guard upon his arrival at Flossenburg. When the camp was

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evacuated in April 1945, Friedrich accompanied prisoners on a march to the Dachau concentration camp. During the march, American soldiers overtook the group and Friedrich fled unnoticed.

In 1948, the United States began admitting certain European refugees for permanent residence, without regard to regular immigration quotas, under the Displaced Persons Act (DPA), Pub.L. No. 80-774, 62 Stat. 1009 (1948). Persons who had "assisted the enemy in persecuting civilians" were ineligible for visas under the DPA. See Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S. 490, 509-10, 101 S.Ct. 737, 66 L.Ed.2d 686 (1981). Two years later, Congress amended the DPA to provide in relevant part that:

No visas shall be issued under the provisions of this Act... to any person who advocated or assisted in the persecution of any person because of race, religion, or natural origin.

Pub.L. No. 81-555 § 13, 64 Stat. 219, 227 (1950). In 1953, Congress enacted a successor law to the DPA, the Refugee Relief Act of 1953(RRA), Pub.L. No. 83-203, 67 Stat. 400 (1953), amended by Pub.L. No. 83-751, 68 Stat. 1044 (1954). The RRA provided that:

No visa shall be issued under this Act to any person who personally advocated or assisted in the persecution of any person or group of persons because of race, religion, or national origin.

Pub.L. No. 83-203 at § 14(a), 67 Stat. at 406 (emphasis added).

In 1953, Friedrich applied for a visa under the RRA. He stated in his visa application that he had been in the German Army from 1942 to 1945 but made no mention of his service with the SS or his duty at the concentration camps. Friedrich was granted a visa in 1955 and subsequently was naturalized in 1962. After learning of Friedrich's involvement with the SS, the United States sought to revoke his citizenship under Section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a). The district court granted summary judgment to the government and revoked Friedrich's citizenship.

II.

We review de novo the district court's grant of summary judgment. Mayer v. Nextel West Corp., 318 F.3d 803, 806 (8th Cir.2003). 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. Id.

The government carries a heavy burden of proof in a denaturalization proceeding and evidence justifying revocation of citizenship must be "clear, unequivocal, and convincing." Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 505, 101 S.Ct. 737. Nonetheless, an illegally procured naturalization may be set aside. Id. at 506...