Local News in Brief : Former SS Guard Deported to Austria
Josef Eckert, a La Puente man unmasked by federal investigators as a former SS guard at the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp in Poland, was deported to Austria, Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh announced Wednesday in Washington.
Eckert, 65, a native of Austria and Hungary, last fall admitted his membership in the SS unit that guarded prisoners, including those arriving at the camp as they disembarked from transport trains.
During his service at the camp, millions of men, women and children were murdered.
Department spokesman Loye Miller said Eckert was deported Tuesday night, but did not arrive in Austria as scheduled at 2 p.m. Wednesday. He said Eckert fell asleep at London’s Heathrow Airport and missed his connecting flight to London.
He was not accompanied by guards because he did not face criminal action in Austria.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
