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Karl Linnas | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1919-08-06)August 6, 1919 |
| Died | July 2, 1987(1987-07-02) (aged 67) |
| Occupation | Nazi war criminal |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Convictions | Treason War crimes |
| Criminal penalty | Death; commuted tolife imprisonment |
Karl Linnas (August 6, 1919 – July 2, 1987) was an Estonian who was sentenced to death during theHolocaust trials in Soviet Estonia in 1961–1962. He was later deported from the United States to theSoviet Union in 1987.[1]
Linnas wastriedin absentia and sentenced to death by a Soviet court in 1962 on charges that during the German occupation, between 1941 and 1943, he was the commandant of a Naziconcentration camp atTartu and had personally shot innocent civilians—men, women and children. After Soviet armies forced the Germans out of Estonia, Linnas fought with the German army and was wounded in 1944. Then he stayed inDisplaced Persons camps in Germany until emigrating to the U.S. in 1951. He became an American citizen in 1960.[2]
Linnas worked as a land surveyor living inGreenlawn, New York, until 1979, when U.S. immigration officials charged him with making false statements to gain entry to the United States.
TheOffice of Special Investigations of the U.S. Justice Department prosecuted Linnas.[3] In 1981, the Federal District Court inWestbury, New York, stripped Linnas of his American citizenship for having lied to immigration officials 30 years earlier about hisNazi past. Linnas's crimes, the judge said, "were such as to offend the decency of any civilized society." A 1986 federal appeals court decision upheld the order for his deportation, ruling that the evidence against the defendant was "overwhelming and largely uncontroverted." In April 1986, as Linnas awaited the outcome of his final appeal, a federal judge ordered him imprisoned to prevent him from fleeing the country.[2][4]
On April 20, 1987, theSupreme Court refused to hear Linnas's final appeal. At that point, he was flown to theSoviet Union.[5] He yelled and fought with federal officials as he was escorted onto the plane. Linnas died nearly three months later, on July 2, 1987, at a prison hospital inLeningrad.[6] He was the second formerly naturalized American to be deported to the Soviet Union, afterFeodor Fedorenko, who was executed several weeks after Linnas died. Shortly after Linnas's death, it was discovered that the Soviet government had commuted his death sentence to life in prison due to his poor health.[7] Linnas was reported to have been suffering from "heart disease, circulatory problems, internal hemorrhaging and cirrhosis of the liver" shortly before his death.[8]
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