Philadelphia Man Auschwitz Murderer?

"Germany has launched a war crimes investigation against an 87-year-old Philadelphia man it accuses of serving as an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp, The Associated Press has learned, following years of failed U.S. Justice Department efforts to have the man stripped of his American citizenship and deported.

Johann "Hans" Breyer, a retired toolmaker, admits he was a guard at Auschwitz during World War II, but told the AP he was stationed outside the facility and had nothing to do with the wholesale slaughter of some 1.5 million Jews and others behind the gates.

The special German office that investigates Nazi war crimes has recommended that prosecutors charge him with accessory to murder and extradite him to Germany for trial on suspicion of involvement in the killing of at least 344,000 Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in occupied Poland.

The AP also has obtained documents that raise doubts about Breyer's testimony about the timing of his departure from Auschwitz.

The case is being pursued on the same legal theory used to prosecute late Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, who died in March while appealing his conviction in Germany on charges he served as a guard at the notorious Sobibor death camp, also in occupied Poland."
Germany launches investigation into Philadelphia man, 87, who was guard at Auschwitz | Mail Online

 

*bump*
He's now being held-
"An 89-year-old Philadelphia man was ordered held without bail today on a German arrest warrant charging that he aided and abetted in the deaths of 216,000 Jews while he was a guard at the Auschwitz death camp.
U.S. authorities arrested retired toolmaker Johann 'Hans' Breyer on Tuesday. He spent the night in custody and appeared frail during a detention hearing in federal court, where he wore an olive green prison jumpsuit and carrying a cane.
Legal filings unsealed today indicate that the district court in Weiden, Germany, issued a warrant for Breyer's arrest the day before, charging him with 158 counts of complicity in the commission of murder."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2661717/Retired-toolmaker-arrested-role-guarding-Nazi-death-camp-helping-kill-216-000.html#ixzz352bQzFpF

 

And another one escapes justice...
"An 89-year-old Nazi war crimes suspect died in custody hours before a U.S. ruling Wednesday that he should be extradited to Germany to face trial.
Johann Breyer died Tuesday night at a Philadelphia hospital, where he had been transferred Saturday after a month in jail, his lawyer and the U.S. Marshals Service said.
His death was disclosed Wednesday just as U.S. Magistrate Timothy Rice approved the extradition request, which would still have needed final U.S. government review.
Rice found probable cause that Breyer was the person being sought by German authorities over his suspected service as an SS guard at Auschwitz during World War II.
'No statute of limitations offers a safe haven for murder,' he wrote in his ruling.
U.S. marshals had arrested Breyer in June outside his longtime home in Philadelphia. He was facing charges of aiding in the killing of 216,000 Jewish men, women and children at a Nazi death camp.
'As outlined by Germany, a death camp guard such as Breyer could not have served at Auschwitz during the peak of the Nazi reign of terror in 1944 without knowing that hundreds of thousands of human beings were being brutally slaughtered in gas chambers and then burned on site,' Rice wrote.
'A daily parade of freight trains delivered hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, most of whom simply vanished overnight. Yet, the screams, the smells, and the pall of death permeated the air. The allegations establish that Breyer can no longer deceive himself and others of his complicity in such horror,' the judge said.
Breyer claimed he was unaware of the massive slaughter at Auschwitz and then that he did not participate in it, but 'the German allegations belie his claims,' the judge wrote."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2703140/Nazi-war-suspect-89-dies-extradition-OKd.html#ixzz38LPA2gI7

 

Well, take solace in the fact that he's got a front row seat to fiery depths.