United States v. Polzin, Civ. No. 1687.

• Court: United States District Courts. 4th Circuit. United States District Court (Maryland)
• Writing for the Court: Jesse Slingluff, Jr., of Baltimore, Md., for defendant
• Citation: 48 F. Supp. 476
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. POLZIN.
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 1687.
• Decision Date: 16 December 1942

48 F. Supp. 476

UNITED STATES
v.
POLZIN.

Civ. No. 1687.

District Court, D. Maryland.

December 16, 1942.

Bernard J. Flynn, U. S. Atty., and C. Ross McKenrick, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Baltimore, Md., for United States of America.

Jesse Slingluff, Jr., of Baltimore, Md., for defendant.

COLEMAN, Judge.

This is a proceeding brought by the Government under the provisions of Section 338 of the Nationality Code, enacted October 14, 1940, 8 U.S.C.A. § 738, for the purpose of revoking and setting aside the order of this court admitting the defendant, Albert Erfried Polzin, to citizenship on February 12, 1934, and canceling the certificate of naturalization issued to him, on the ground that such order and certificate were fraudulently and illegally procured by him in that the representations in his petition for naturalization were false and fraudulent because he was not, in fact, as he was required to state under oath and did so state in that petition, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United

48 F. Supp. 477

States at the time he filed his petition nor during the five years prior thereto; did not in good faith intend to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to the German Reich, of which he was then a subject, but in fact intended to retain allegiance and fidelity thereto; and did not in fact intend to reside permanently in the United States; and likewise that all of the representations made by the defendant in his oath of allegiance which he was required to take and did take at the time he was naturalized were false and fraudulent because he did not, in fact, as recited in his oath, renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to Germany; because he did not, in fact, intend to support the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and because he did not, in fact, intend to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, but, in fact, intended to remain a subject of the German Reich and to maintain allegiance thereto

The defendant has denied these allegations of the Government's complaint. Full hearing has been had; witnesses testified for both the Government and the defendant. The defendant himself testified at great length and the case was fully argued by counsel.

The defendant was born near Freiberg, Germany, on February 11, 1903, and came to this country for the first time on May 15, 1925; that is to say, when he was twenty-two years old. A little less than a year and a half later, that is, on September 20, 1926, he filed his declaration of intention to become an American citizen. In 1927 he married a German citizen. Six years later, that is, on September 20, 1933, he filed his petition for naturalization and was naturalized by this court on February 12, 1934.

In the summer of 1934 he spent a short time in Germany on an alleged pleasure trip with his wife. From 1934 down to the present time he has practiced his trade, which has been that of a cabinet maker, and more recently has worked in several national defense and war production plants, from one of which he was discharged because suspected of subversive activities. At the present time he is employed by a local woodworking company, which is engaged in the production of war materials.

The defendant has three brothers who are, or at least were when last heard from, fighting in the German Army. He himself attended a military school in Germany for noncommissioned officers during the period of the last world war. He has never been prosecuted for any offense since he arrived in this country.

In support of its claim that the representations of the defendant made in his petition for naturalization and his oath of allegiance were false and fraudulent, for the reasons which have already been set forth, the Government relies exclusively upon testimony, and upon the inferences based thereon, of acts and statements of the defendant, all of which were subsequent to the time when he took the oath of naturalization; that is, subsequent to February 12, 1934, but the Government claims that these acts and statements require the conclusion that at the time he filed his petition for naturalization and took the oath, he did so with the mental reservation of loyalty and allegiance to Germany which he had sworn to renounce; in other words, that what the defendant said and did subsequently to 1934 establishes fraudulent intention at the time he applied for, and obtained, American citizenship.

The testimony discloses that the defendant was president of a group known as "The Friends of New Germany" shortly after its organization in Baltimore in October, 1934. Originally, German nationals as well as United States citizens of German origin were eligible, and in fact members of this society, but about this time, apparently to create public impression that it was strictly an American organization, it was openly announced that henceforth only American citizens were eligible for membership. The defendant resigned his office and membership after five or six months. This organization was really the same as the Amerika Deutscher Volksbund, commonly known as the American-German Bund or the German-American Bund, which name was adopted in 1936, because the former name sounded too German. Secretly, there appears to have been no strict adherence to the rule that only American citizens were eligible for membership. Apparently, the "Friends of New Germany" as such ceased their activities in Baltimore in 1935. There is no direct evidence that defendant, after resigning from "The Friends of New Germany", was ever a member or actively associated with the Bund or its many affiliated, subversive organizations. It is

48 F. Supp. 478

unnecessary to relate their history here. Suffice it to say that as a result of investigations conducted by the Federal Government in recent years, it has become common knowledge that these organizations were financed and controlled, directly or indirectly, by the Nazi Party in Germany; that, in a word, they had one common purpose, to unite all German-Americans under the Bund and then to have national socialism replace democracy in this country. In furtherance of this object, they sought the assimilation of the entire German-American youth with the Bund; they issued many publications of the most insidious and subversive character; they advocated racial inequality and disobedience to law, as evidenced by the fact that numerous national and local leaders of the Bund were found to have conspired to commit sedition, to cause disobedience to the Alien Registration Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 451 et seq., and to the Selective Service Act, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix § 301 et seq. The Bund required that its members should be considered Germans, no matter what citizenship they might possess; that is, allegiance and fidelity to Germany was the sine qua non. The Bund was dissolved in December, 1941, after unsuccessful efforts to continue under the guise of some other organization. It is common knowledge that a number of those active in the Bund in this country have been high officials in the Nazi regime in Germany, and that several of its leaders have been prosecuted criminally and convicted in this country

The defendant admitted in the course of his testimony that as a result of his trip to Germany in the summer of 1934, he had become indoctrinated with Nazi ideas but claimed he did not see anything wrong with "The Friends of New Germany", that their object was to further better understanding and relations between Germany and this country. He admitted that he admired Hitler and what he had done to improve the economic conditions of Germany. He admitted that he may have said, since his return from Germany in 1934, that he was a Nazi, but he claims that he now...