## Facts

- Leonid Petkiewytsch was a native and citizen of Poland who lived in Europe during World War II.
- At about age 21, he fled Poland to Czechoslovakia and was later sent to a transit camp in Austria.
- German authorities ordered him to report for duty as a civilian guard at the Kiel-Hasse labor-education camp.
- Petkiewytsch objected to the assignment, but he was told refusal would result in imprisonment or execution; he reported for duty.
- Labor-education camps, initially created for foreign laborers, had become punishment camps for labor infractions and for violations of Nazi policies, including failure to wear Jewish or Polish identity badges.
- Although labor-education camps were described as less severe than some other Nazi camps, inmates were subjected to physical abuse, malnutrition, overcrowding, interrogation, torture, and sometimes execution.
- Petkiewytsch was required to wear a Gestapo uniform and carry a loaded rifle.
- His duties included escorting prisoners to work, guarding the camp perimeter, and guarding a bunker area where prisoners were interrogated and abused.
- He was ordered to shoot prisoners who attempted to escape and was warned that disobedience would lead to imprisonment or being shot.
- He never fired his rifle and did not strike or physically abuse prisoners.
- He was imprisoned by German authorities on one occasion for failing to perform his guard duties.
- After the war, British authorities interned him as a suspected war criminal, investigated, exonerated, and released him.
- In 1955, Petkiewytsch entered the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and became a lawful permanent resident.
- In 1985, the INS initiated deportation proceedings under the 1978 Holtzman Amendment (then codified at INA § 241(a)(19)), alleging he had assisted in Nazi persecution.
- The immigration judge terminated the proceedings, finding Petkiewytsch acted under duress and did not personally commit abusive acts.
- The BIA reversed, finding that inmates at Kiel-Hasse were persecuted on protected grounds and that the objective effect of Petkiewytsch’s guard service was to assist persecution by preventing escapes.
- Petkiewytsch petitioned the Sixth Circuit for review of the BIA’s deportation order.

## Issues

1. Whether forced service as an armed guard at a Nazi labor-education camp constitutes having “assisted” or “otherwise participated in” persecution within the meaning of the Holtzman Amendment to the INA.
2. Whether duress and the absence of personal brutality toward prisoners prevent a finding that the guard “assisted” Nazi persecution for purposes of deportability.

## Decision

- The Sixth Circuit denied the petition for review.
- The court affirmed the BIA’s order of deportation under the Holtzman Amendment.
- The court agreed that Petkiewytsch’s armed guard service at Kiel-Hasse amounted to assistance in persecution, even though he claimed duress and did not personally beat or kill prisoners.

## Legal Principles

- The Holtzman Amendment authorizes deportation of an alien who, under the direction of or in association with the Nazi government (or an associated government), “ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated” in persecution on account of race, religion, national origin, or political opinion.
- “Assistance” in persecution is not limited to direct, personal violence; providing armed guard services that help keep victims confined and subject to abuse can qualify.
- A guard’s role may be treated as assistance based on the function and effect of the conduct (such as preventing escape and maintaining custody) within a persecutory camp setting.
- Coercion or duress does not, by itself, remove qualifying conduct from the statutory terms “assisted” or “otherwise participated” for deportation under the Holtzman Amendment.
- On review of a final deportation order, the court accepts agency fact findings if supported by substantial evidence and evaluates the agency’s application of the statute to those facts.

## Conclusion

The Sixth Circuit upheld Petkiewytsch’s deportation because his armed guard duties at the Kiel-Hasse labor-education camp helped maintain the confinement of prisoners who were persecuted on protected grounds, and the statute did not require proof that he personally committed violent acts or that his service was voluntary.


Petkiewytsch v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 945 F.2d 871 (1991)