U.S. v. Hansl
| Decision Date | 08 April 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 4:03-CV-90406.,4:03-CV-90406. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. John HANSL, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa |
James A Benzoni, Benzoni Law Office PLC, Lisa Mattsson, Benzoni Law Office, Des Moines, IA, for John Hansl, Defendant.
Gary L Hayward, United States Attorney, Second FLR Courthouse Annex, Des Moines, Jeffrey L. Menkin, U.S. Dept of Justice, Criminal Div, special investigations, Washington, DC, for USA, Plaintiff.
Before the Court are cross motions for summary judgment. The Government filed its motion for summary judgment on January 31, 2005 (Clerk's No. 82). Defendant John Hansl filed his motion for summary judgment on the same date (Clerk's No. 85). Each party filed a resistance to the other's motion. Likewise, both parties have filed reply briefs. A hearing was held on the motions on March 23, 2005. The matter is fully submitted.
On July 24, 2003, the Government filed this action seeking to revoke the United States citizenship and certificate of naturalization of Defendant John Hansl pursuant to section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended ("INA"). 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a). The Government claims that Defendant illegally procured United States citizenship, in that he was legally ineligible to receive a visa to enter the United States under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, Pub.L. No. 203, 67 Stat. 400, as amended, 68 Stat. 1044 (1944) ("RRA").
The following facts, pleaded in the Government's Statement of Material Facts, are undisputed. The Plaintiff in this matter is the United States of America. Defendant is a natural person. This Court properly has jurisdiction of this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1335, and section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a). Venue is proper in the Southern District of Iowa pursuant to section 340(a), which provides that an action to revoke citizenship shall be brought in the judicial district in which the naturalized citizen resides at the time the suit is brought. At the time the present action was filed, Defendant was a resident of Des Moines, Iowa.
Defendant was born on January 21, 1925, in Donji Miholjac, Yugoslavia, which is located in present day Croatia. On February 22, 1943, at the age of eighteen, the Defendant, known at the time by the name "Johann Hansl" entered the Nazi Waffen SS (Armed SS), receiving the rank of SS Schutze (private). Defendant was assigned to the 1st Company of the SS Death's Head Guard Battalion (Totenkopf-Wachbataillon) at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (also known as "Oranienburg Concentration Camp") near Berlin, Germany, where he received an SS blood type tattoo.
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was a place of persecution. Thousands of persons were imprisoned and murdered at the camp because of, amongst other things, their race, religion, or national origin. Sachsenhausen contained work facilities, where prisoners were forced to perform various types of labor. The complex housed a crematorium, a gas chamber, a shooting pit used for executions by firing squad, and a gallows. Starvation and disease were rampant among the prisoner population at Sachsenhausen, due to inadequate food and unsanitary conditions. Thousands of prisoners, who wore only light-weight striped uniforms year round, died, while others, deemed too ill or too weak to work, were killed or transferred to other camps to be killed. Many Sachsenhausen prisoners were murdered by shooting, hanging, gassing, beatings, and other means. The camp was also the site of a variety of gruesome medical experiments that resulted in the deaths of many prisoners. In all, tens of thousands of men, women and children died in the Sachsenhausen system while it was in operation.
All Nazi concentration camps, including Sachsenhausen, were guarded by SS Death's Head guards. These guards could request transfer to other duty. Defendant served as an armed guard of prisoners at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp until on or about October 29, 1943. His duties included guarding prisoners from a watch tower, escorting prisoners on marches to and from sites near the main camp where the prisoners performed forced labor, and guarding prisoners while they performed forced labor outside the camp. These duties were performed on a rotating basis and were the standard duties that perimeter guards, such as the Defendant, were ordered to perform. On at least one occasion, the Defendant assisted in the search for a missing prisoner. When the prisoner was found, he was shot to death, though the parties agree that Defendant did not personally shoot the prisoner.
While on duty, Defendant's purpose was to prevent prisoners from escaping. While performing watch tower duties, Defendant was armed with a machine gun. While escorting prisoners to forced labor sites and guarding them as they worked, Defendant was armed with a rifle. He marched along-side the prisoners and gave them orders. Defendant was under strict orders to shoot any prisoners who attempted to escape. As a member of the SS Death's Head Guard Battalion at Sachsenhausen, Defendant wore a uniform, was paid, and was allowed to leave the camp to travel to nearby Berlin when not on duty.
On or about October 29, 1943, approximately 150 Death's Head guards, including the Defendant, were transferred out of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Records reflect that from November 1943 to March 1944, the Defendant served with an SS unit in or near Lublin, Poland. In March 1944, Defendant was transferred to the SS Death's Head Guard Battalion at Natzweiler Concentration Camp, near the town of Natzweiler, in Nazi-occupied France. Like Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler was a place of persecution where thousands of persons were imprisoned and murdered because of their race, religion, or national origin. Natzweiler housed a gas chamber, a crematorium, and was the site of a variety of gruesome medical experiments. The conditions at Natzweiler were like those at Sachsenhausen, with starvation and disease rampant among the prisoner population. Many Natzweiler prisoners were murdered by shooting, hanging, gassing, beatings, or other means.
Defendant's duties at Natzweiler were nearly identical to his duties at Sachsenhausen. Until October 1944, Defendant served as an armed guard of prisoners. Armed with a machine gun, he guarded prisoners from a watch tower. Armed with a rifle, he escorted prisoners to forced labor sites and guarded them while they worked. Defendant's purpose as an SS Death's Head guard at Natzweiler was to prevent prisoners from escaping. Indeed, while guarding forced labor details, the Defendant told prisoners that if they attempted to escape, he would shoot them. On at least one occasion, Defendant guarded prisoners on a train transport from Natzweiler to another concentration camp. Like at Sachsenhausen, the Defendant was under strict orders to shoot any prisoner who attempted to escape. While stationed at Natzweiler, the Defendant was allowed to leave the camp and travel to a nearby village when not on duty.
In September 1944, Defendant was transferred to a combat unit, the 17th SS Reconnaissance Battalion, a component of the 17th SS Armored Infantry Division "Gotz von Berlichingen." On approximately November 30, 1944, the Defendant was wounded in combat near Sarreguemines in eastern France. He remained in various German military hospitals until January 1945, when he was transferred to a healing station in Augsburg, Germany. In May 1945, Defendant was captured by the United States Third Army in Augsburg and was held as a prisoner-of-war. In February 1947, he was transferred to the custody of French authorities. He was eventually released from custody in November 1947.
In August 1955, Defendant applied for an immigration visa under the RRA at the United States Consulate in Salzburg, Austria. On his visa application, Defendant's name, date of birth, and place of birth were correctly listed. His wartime residence was listed from 1943 to 1945 as the "German Army."1 On August 29, 1955, United States State Department Vice Consul Richard Bloomfield issued Defendant a visa. The visa was also approved by Lester Greener, an Immigration and Naturalization Service Inspector stationed in Salzburg. Defendant entered the United States at the Port of New York, as a non-quota immigrant under the RRA, on November 9, 1955. He was naturalized by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa on October 30, 1961, and received Certificate of Naturalization No. 8366435.
Summary judgment has a special place in civil litigation. The device "has proven its usefulness as a means of avoiding full-dress trials in unwinnable cases, thereby freeing courts to utilize scarce judicial resources in more beneficial ways." Mesnick v. General Elec. Co., 950 F.2d 816, 822 (1st Cir.1991). In operation, the role of summary judgment is to pierce the boilerplate of the pleadings and assay the parties' proof in order to determine whether trial is actually required. See id.; see also Garside v. Osco Drug, Inc., 895 F.2d 46, 50 (1st Cir.1990).
"[S]ummary judgment is an extreme remedy, and one which is not to be granted unless the movant has established his right to a judgment with such clarity as to leave no room for controversy and that the other party is not entitled to recover under any discernible circumstances." Robert Johnson Grain Co. v. Chemical Interchange Co., 541 F.2d 207, 209 (8th Cir.1976) (citing Windsor v. Bethesda Gen. Hosp., 523 F.2d 891, 893 n. 5 (8th Cir.1975)). The purpose of the rule is not "`to cut litigants off from their right of trial by jury if they really have issues to try,'" Poller v. Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc., 368 U.S. 464, 467, 82 S.Ct. 486, 7 L.Ed.2d 458 (1962) (quoting Sartor v. Arkansas Natural Gas...
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