After being kicked out of the U.S., some suspected Nazi war criminals collected U.S. Social Security, according to the Associated Press via CBC. A loophole allowed the U.S. Justice Department to convince Nazi suspects that they could keep their Social Security if they fled the U.S. before deportation.
American taxpayers are still shelling out to living recipients, including Martin Hartmann, a former SS guard at Sachsenhausen in Germany, and Jakob Denzinger, who worked at Auschwitz in Poland, according to CBC. Both men left the U.S. before they could officially lose their citizenship. Hartmann lives in Berlin and Denzinger lives riverside in Croatia.
The deals helped avoid deportation hearings and aided in the expulsion of a higher number of Nazis, but the AP investigation found that since 1979, "at least 38 of 66 suspects removed from the country kept their Social Security benefits," wrote CBC.
"This was not the way America should behave," said James Hergen, who worked for the U.S. State Department from 1982 to 2007, according to CBC. "We should not be dumping our refuse, for lack of a better word, on friendly states."
"It's absolutely outrageous that Nazi war criminals are continuing to receive Social Security benefits when they have been outlawed from our country for many, many, many years," said U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York's 12th district. Maloney plans to introduce a law to change the escape clause.
The Social Security Administration would not provide the AP with the total number of Nazi suspects who have received benefits, according to CBC. Social Security spokesperson William Jarrett told the investigators that Nazi cases are not tracked specifically.
Jarrett also said that the U.S. privacy law does not provide an exception that "allows us to disclose information because the individual is a Nazi war criminal or an accused Nazi war criminal," according to CBC.
