The government says Berger was an armed guard at a concentration camp near Meppen, Germany, in 1945. Berger, who was reached by phone by The Washington Post, said he did not carry a weapon and said the court's conclusions about his work at the camp were based on "lies."
The immigration judge found that the prisoners Berger guarded were held in atrocious conditions and were exploited for forced labor. Berger also was accused of guarding prisoners during a forced evacuation to a main camp that took two weeks and left 70 prisoners dead as they traveled in inhumane conditions, according to two government news releases.
Berger acknowledged that he never requested a transfer from the concentration camp guard service and that he still gets a pension from Germany. He has been living in the U.S. since 1959.
CBS affiliate WREG-TV reports that Berger said to this day he still receives a pension from Germany for his work, "including his wartime service."
The U.S. Department of Justice's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions unit launched an investigation into Berger in 2017. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center also investigated.
In August 2018, American authorities deported a 95-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard who had lived quietly in New York City for decades. The man died in Germany about five months later.
