Nazi prison officer who guarded doomed Jews at Auschwitz then claimed $360,000 in US benefits cheats justice by dying aged 92
- Croatian Jakob Denzinger, a former guard at Auschwitz, has died aged 92
- He started serving the Nazis while his country was under a German regime
- He was later posted at several different concentration and death camps
- Denzinger fled in 1989 as US prosecutors prepared a case against him
- But it later emerged that from Croatia he had claimed $360,000 (£250,000) in benefits
Jakob Denzinger, a former Nazi prison guard at Auschwitz, has died in his native Croatia. He was 92.
The announcement by Denzinger's family says he was buried Saturday at a local cemetery near Osijek in eastern Croatia, after having died on Thursday.
Denzinger was among a group of former Nazis to have fled to the U.S. after the war and remained living there comfortably until their senior years - claiming millions in social security payments.
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This photo shows Jakob Denzinger's portrait on the tombstone of his grave in Cepin, eastern Croatia. The suspected former Nazi prison guard at Auschwitz and other death camps, Jakob Denzinger, has died aged 92
It was only in 1989 that Denzinger fled the U.S. - but it later emerged he continued to receive social security payments which totaled $360,000 (£250,000).
He was born in present-day Croatia, which was part of Yugoslavia at the time. He started serving with the Nazi SS at the age of 18, in 1942, while Croatia was under a pro-Nazi puppet regime.
He was posted at several camps, including the Auschwitz death camp complex in occupied Poland.
Denzinger moved to the U.S. after the war, settling in Ohio where he became a successful plastics industry executive.
Years later, the Justice Department uncovered his past. In 1989, as U.S. prosecutors prepared their case to strip Denzinger of his citizenship, he first fled to Germany and later moved to Croatia.
Denzinger was among dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals and SS guards who collected millions of dollars in U.S. Social Security benefits after being forced out of the U.S.
An Associated Press investigation into the issue resulted in a law in 2014 barring suspected Nazi war criminals from receiving U.S. government pension benefits.
Croatian authorities in 2014 opened an investigation of Denzinger's Second World War service, but he was never tried. He had refused to comment on the allegations.
Denzinger glares down from his apartment window in Osijek, Croatia, where he spent the final years of his life
He was one of dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals who collected millions of U.S. Social Security benefits in their senior years
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