Jakiw Palij



Jakiw Palij (1923 - 2019) was a Nazi guard in the Trawniki Labour Camp. Although he never took part in any massacres, he was still a war criminal as he stood guard while SS guards forced Jewish prisoners to dig their own graves and shot them, even supposedly playing waltzes by Johann Strauss to drown out the gunfire. He fled to America in 1957.

In 2003, Palij's US citizenship was revoked after his role in the atrocities came to light. However, he remained in the country until 2018 due to no other country accepting him. In 2018 he was finally deported to Germany and died in a care home the next year.