Alleged ex-Nazi faces loss of citizenship

SEATTLE, July 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Justice Department officials said Tuesday they asked a court to revoke the U.S. citizenship of a suspected Nazi war criminal living in Washington state.

Federal prosecutors, who filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Seattle, say evidence shows Peter Egner, 86, of Bellevue, Wash., who was born in Yugoslavia, was a member of a Nazi unit that took part in the mass murder of more than 17,000 Serbian civilians during World War II. The officials say most of the victims were Jews.

Egner joined the Nazi-controlled Security Police and Security Service in German-occupied Belgrade, Serbia, in April 1941 and served through September 1943, the federal complaint alleges.

Egner allegedly has admitted volunteering to serve in the unit and guarding prisoners taken to Avala and the Semlin concentration camp.

"The Nazi unit in which Peter Egner is alleged to have participated was responsible for countless deaths and unimaginable human suffering," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich. "By bringing this action today, we again declare our unwavering commitment to the principle that participants in Nazi crimes should not be afforded the rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship."

Egner entered the United States in 1960 and became a U.S. citizen in 1966.