Yale Retiree’s Citizenship Stripped for Nazi Writings
A retired Yale University lecturer who was decorated by the Nazis for writing anti-Semitic propaganda during World War II has been stripped of his U.S. citizenship and faces deportation.
Vladimir Sokolov, 73, a native of the Soviet Union, had concealed his work for the Nazis when he was granted permission to emigrate to the United States in 1951 and when he was naturalized in 1957, U.S. District Judge Thomas Murphy ruled Monday.
The Justice Department said it will begin deportation proceedings as soon as the judge’s decision becomes final.
Sokolov, who was born in Orel, Russia, and now lives in Milford, Conn., was accused by the United States of working for Nazi propaganda units as a writer and editor.
His works urged the persecution of Jews in the occupied Soviet Union and Germany, the court found.
Sokolov’s attempt to conceal the writings “proved beyond a doubt that his heart and mind were on the side of the enemy,” said Murphy, who presided at Sokolov’s trial in Waterbury, Conn., last November.
Sokolov, who was a member of Yale’s department of Slavic languages for 20 years, can appeal Murphy’s ruling.
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