Austria Frees Ex-Nazi Guard Who Lost His U.S. Citizenship

VIENNA —  Martin Bartesch, a self-confessed Nazi concentration-camp guard who was stripped of his U.S. citizenship, was released from police custody Friday in Austria, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Spokesman Karl Newole said Bartesch, 60, will probably avoid prosecution on a murder charge because a 20-year Austrian statute of limitations has run out.

The charge is based on an allegation that Bartesch, who was 16 at the time, shot and killed Austrian Jew Alfred Ochshorn in 1943 at the Mauthausen SS concentration camp in Austria during an apparent escape attempt.

However, Newole said the investigation of Bartesch, who officially is stateless, “has not formally ended.” Austrian Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal and others have argued that there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.

Bartesch left the United States in late May after being stripped of his citizenship and was arrested last Tuesday in Weyregg, Upper Austria. The regional prosecutor’s office said Bartesch was released after being interrogated.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Alois Mock said the United States engaged in “dirty tricks” by failing to immediately notify Austrian officials that Bartesch had been instructed to return to Austria and to turn in his passport to the American Embassy in Vienna by June 9.

Responding to Austrian threats to ship Bartesch back to the United States, American officials said this week that any airline that took him as a passenger on a U.S.-bound flight would be prosecuted.

One U.S. official conceded that the procedure for the expulsion “was not as meticulously followed as it could have been.”

Ronald Lauder, U.S. ambassador to Austria, cited a 1954 agreement that stipulates Austria will take back any refugees who departed from its borders and fraudulently obtained a U.S. visa, which Bartesch admitted he did in 1955.