A judge ordered federal authorities Wednesday to detain an 89-year-old Philadelphia man before deciding whether he will be sent to Germany to face charges connected to his alleged role as a Nazi death camp guard.
It is the latest twist in a long-running effort by German authorities to prosecute Johann Breyer, a retired tool maker who emigrated to the U.S. in 1952, for his alleged role at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, part of the Auschwitz complex in German-occupied Poland during World War II. A previous effort by the Justice Department to strip Mr. Breyer of his citizenship and deport him ended in 2003 when a federal appeals court affirmed a prior judge's ruling that his Nazi service was involuntary.
German authorities issued a warrant in June 2013 for Mr. Breyer's arrest and have charged him with aiding and abetting the murders of 158 trainloads of European Jews, or about 216,000 people. Prosecutors in Weiden, Germany, have asked U.S. authorities to extradite him so he can stand trial in Germany.
