The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Saturday that former Nazi concentration camp guard Friedrich Karl Berger was removed from the US to Germany. Berger was removed for his service in 1945 as an armed guard of concentration camp prisoners in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp system.

Berger was an armed guard within the Neuengamme Concentration Camp system. He served at a sub-camp, where prisoners were subject to “atrocious” conditions and forced labor in 1945. He also served as a guard on a trip that forced prisoners to be transferred to the Neuengamme main camp, during which time 70 prisoners lost their lives.

Berger had lived in the US as a Tennessee resident since 1959. However, the DOJ Human Rights and Special Prosecution Section initiated an investigation into Berger. Last March US Immigration Judge Rebecca Holt issued a removal order, finding Berger removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act because of his “willing service as an armed guard of prisoners at a concentration camp where persecution took place.” The Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the decision in November.

On the removal, Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson stated: “Berger’s removal demonstrates the Department of Justice’s and its law enforcement partners’ commitment to ensuring that the United States is not a safe haven for those who have participated in Nazi crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses.”

Berger was the seventieth Nazi persecutor removed from the US. He reportedly faces questioning by local police in Germany.