German authorities have charged Breyer with complicity in the murder of more than 216,000 European Jews from Hungary, Germany, and Czechoslovakia, who were forcibly deported to Auschwitz. He served in the Nazi “Death’s Head Guard Battalion” from 1943 to 1945 at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp and at another location. In 1991, Breyer declared to the U.S. authorities that he was a perimeter guard and may have fired into the air occasionally. It was not the truth. After World War II, Breyer migrated to the United States in 1952 and claimed citizenship as a displaced person. Authorities sustain that he deliberately made false statements. Breyer’s extradition hearing is scheduled for August 21. This may be a long and complicated process. “We applaud the German and American governments for their commitment to ensuring that, while justice may be delayed, perpetrators of the Holocaust will be pursued to the end, no matter how long it takes,” Abraham H. Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League National Director, said.
