But because Germany, Poland, Ukraine and other countries refused to take him, he continued living in limbo in the two-story, red brick home in Queens he shared with his late wife, Maria. Palij's deportation is the first for a Nazi war crimes suspect since Germany agreed in 2009 to take John Demjanjuk, a retired Ohio autoworker who was accused of serving as a Nazi guard. In reality, officials say, he played an essential role in the Nazi program to exterminate Jews as an armed guard at Trawniki. After the war, Palij maintained friendships with other Nazi guards who the government says came to the U.S. under similar false pretenses. The Justice Department's special Nazi-hunting unit started piecing together Palij's past after a fellow Trawniki guard identified him to Canadian authorities in 1989.

Source: ABC News August 21, 2018 08:17 UTC