WASHINGTON A Bloomingdale, Ill., man is accused of having workedfor the Nazis at the notorious Auschwitz and Buchenwald Lauraconcentration camps, guarding inmates as they were evacuated fromcattle cars and handling the vicious dogs that kept them in line.
"These guard dogs were trained by their handlers to viciouslyattack concentration camp inmates on command and to bite or maulinmates who violated arbitrary rules relating to inmate discipline,"a U.S. Justice Department statement said Friday.
Justice officials say Wiatscheslaw "Chester" Rydlinskis, wholives in Bloomingdale's Medinah Lakes subdivision, concealed fromU.S. immigration authorities his activity during World War II as aconcentration camp guard and a guard dog handler.
In making the charges Friday, the Office of SpecialInvestigations, which hunts down former Nazis in the United States,asked a federal judge in Chicago to strip Rydlinskis of his U.S.citizenship.
The U.S. government said Rydlinskis, who was born in Lithuaniain 1924, joined the Waffen SS in 1941 and served from 1941 to 1945 inthe Death's Head Battalion at Auschwitz, the concentration camp inNazi-occupied Poland, and at the Buchenwald Laura subcamp in Germany.
At the German camp, he allegedly guarded inmates as they wereevacuated from cattle cars and were forced to march to the Dachauconcentration camp.
Rydlinskis allegedly was transferred later to a guard dogcompany at Auschwitz.
He was arrested in 1945 by British military forces. He wasdetained as a war-crimes suspect for almost two years, but he was notprosecuted and was released on May 28, 1945.
He obtained a visa to emigrate from Germany to the UnitedStates in 1956 by concealing his wartime background, the JusticeDepartment charged.
The government alleged that Rydlinskis hid his past again in1966 when he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen.
Tony Cozzi, block captain for a neighborhood watch program,said Rydlinskis and his wife have lived in the town house complex forabout 1 1/2 years.
"He seemed to be very nice, a very mild-mannered person. Mostnaturally I'm surprised," Cozzi said. "Who would ever think?"
Neighbors Robert and Metta Clancy said their contact with himwas limited to an occasional greeting on the street.
"He seems like a very nice, ordinary guy," Metta Clancy said.
The Justice Department unit that tracks down Nazis has persuadedcourts to rescind the citizenship of 50 former German soldiers and todeport 42 of them from the country. "The bulk are from Chicago andCleveland," a spokesman said.
Contributing: Alex Rodriguez
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