United States Supreme Court

On January 21, 1981, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of United States of America v. Feodor Federenko (1907-1986). At issue was whether the defendant, Feodor Fedorenko, a seventy-four-year-old Ukrainian-American who during World War Two had served as an armed guard at the infamous Treblinka extermination camp, should have his American citizenship revoked on the basis of this newly discovered fact about his past. The original case, having found in Fedorenko's favour, was successfuly appealed. Fedorenko became the first Nazi war criminal to be deported to the Soviet Union. In a court in Southern Ukraine, June 1986, he was found guilty of treason; voluntarily going over to the side of the Fascist aggressors; taking part in punitive actions against the peaceful population; and mass executions of citizens of many countries. He was sentenced to death in Kiev in 1986.