Opinion ID: 2998283
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Wittje’s membership in the Waffen SS.

Text: As we have noted, Wittje concedes he was a member of the Waffen SS. He raises two arguments, however, as to why his membership did not render him ineligible for a visa. First, Wittje argues that the Waffen SS was not, as of 1950, considered a movement that had been hostile to the United States. In other words, according to Wittje, a member of the Waffen SS, by virtue of such membership, was not ineligible for a visa pursuant to § 13 of the DPA. There is no doubt that the Waffen SS was a movement hostile to the United States. Wittje’s argument to the contrary is frivolous. In a March 1949 opinion letter, the chief of the State Department’s Visa Division categorized the Waffen SS as a criminal organization and stated that its members were “definitely excluded” from receiving a visa pursuant to § 13 of the DPA. A State Department memorandum to the American Consul in Stuttgart, Germany dated August 3, 1949, reached the same conclusion using substantively identical language. 7 McMahon, who processed Wittje’s visa, is deceased. No. 04-3517 15 Also instructive is the position of the United States Displaced Persons Commission (the “DPC”). The DPC was established by the DPA and was charged with, among other things, “formulat[ing] and issu[ing] regulations, necessary under the provisions of this Act, and in compliance therewith, for the admission into the United States of . . . eligible displaced persons.” The Waffen SS was among those groups on the “Inimical List,” a list of organizations, prepared by the DPC, that, as the name implies, were considered inimical to the United States. A memorandum circulated to “Senior Officers and Staff” of the DPC by the DPC Coordinator for Europe dated November 28, 1950, noted that the “[p]olicy of the [DPC] has been to consider either voluntary or involuntary membership in the Waffen SS . . . as a bar per se under Section 13 [of the DPA].” Another memorandum to the Chairman and Commissioners of the DPC cited approvingly the August 3, 1949, State Department memorandum as well as a September 23, 1949, decision of the State Department rejecting a consular recommendation that an SS officer be granted a visa to join his family in the United States. The Department rejection noted that “[t]he current policy of the Department is to recommend refusal of visas to aliens who were members of the SS at any time, regardless of whatever mitigating circumstances they may now try to offer in explanation of such membership . . . .” In response to this contemporaneous evidence of § 13’s applicability to the Waffen SS, Wittje cites to an April 1949 State Department telegram from Secretary of State Dean Acheson to the Chairman of the DPC. In that telegram, Acheson stated that § 13 was intended to cover “political or subversive groups of an ideological character” and “not considered as embracing military, naval, or air forces nor local constabularies . . . .” Wittje argues that statement 16 No. 04-3517 supports his conclusion that § 13 was not intended to cover “a private drafted into the Waffen SS.” In effect, Wittje seeks to have this court view the Waffen SS as a military force akin to the Wehrmacht. The problem for Wittje, however, is that, as pointed out above, the Waffen SS was not considered a part of, or akin to, the Wehrmacht, but was a paramilitary component of the Nazi party. The State Department’s August 3, 1949 memorandum referenced above makes this distinction clear. The memorandum begins by noting that “[t]he Department has taken the view that service in the Wehrmacht or other regular branches of the armed forces of the enemy powers . . . would not serve as a bar to eligibility of person of German ethnic origin to receive a visa.” The memorandum then goes on to note, however, that “members of such other military organizations as the Waffen [SS], proscribed as a criminal organization, are definitely excluded under the [DPA].” Wittje himself, in his “Amended Statement of Undisputed Material Facts and Counterstatement to [the] Government’s Statement of Material Facts” admits that the Waffen SS was a “Nazi party organization.” Wittje’s second argument is that, assuming the Waffen SS was considered a movement hostile to the United States, a person was a member of the Waffen SS for the purposes of the DPA only if they voluntarily joined the organization. Thus, Wittje, who claims he was drafted into the Waffen SS, argues he was not covered by § 13. We disagree. In Fedorenko, the Supreme Court held that there was no “involuntariness” exception to the exclusion from visa eligibility in the DPA of persons who had “assisted the enemy in persecuting civil[ians].” 449 U.S. at 512. This exclusion arose as a result of the DPA’s incorporation of the definition of displaced persons contained in Annex I to the IRO Constitution, specifically § 2(a) of Part II No. 04-3517 17 of Annex I. The Court compared the absence of an involuntariness exception in § 2(a) to § 2(b). That section excluded from displaced person status those who had “voluntarily assisted the enemy forces since the outbreak of the second world war in their operations against the United Nations.” IRO const. Annex I, § 2(b). The Court concluded that the use of the word “voluntarily” in § 2(b) and its absence from § 2(a) demonstrated “[t]hat Congress was perfectly capable of adopting a ‘voluntariness’ limitation where it felt that one was necessary.” Fedorenko, 449 U.S. at 512. Thus, according to the Court, “the deliberate omission of the word ‘voluntary’ from § 2(a) compels the conclusion that the statute made all those who assisted in the persecution of civilians ineligible for visas.” Id. Like § 2(a) of Annex I, there is no voluntariness requirement in the plain language of § 13 of the DPA. Section 13 prohibits the issuance of a visa to “any person who is or has been a member of, or participated in, any movement which is or has been hostile to the United States or the form of government of the United States.” (emphasis added). This language does not condition such participation or membership on whether the person was a volunteer or a conscript. Other courts that addressed the issue have reached the same conclusion. See United States v. Negele, No. 4:97CV01810, slip op. at 59 (E.D. Mo. July 20, 1999) (“The [DPA] made no distinction between voluntary or involuntary membership in a hostile movement. Any membership or participation in any such hostile movement was a cause for mandatory disqualification.”); United States v. Schiffer, 831 F. Supp. 1166, 1182 (E.D. Pa. 1993), aff’d, 31 F.3d 1175 (3d Cir. 1994) (table) (holding that prior to 1951, “all members of the Waffen SS were precluded from receiving visas”) (emphasis added). State Department and DPC policy at the time Wittje applied for a visa also make it clear that all members of the 18 No. 04-3517 Waffen SS were covered by § 13 regardless of whether such membership was voluntary. The State Department memorandum dated August 3, 1949, referenced above instructed the American Consul in Stuttgart, Germany to reject the visa application of a former member of the Waffen SS, “his contention that such membership was compulsory 8 notwithstanding.” A November 28, 1950, DPC memorandum (also referenced above) noted that the “[p]olicy of the [DPC] has been to consider either voluntary or involuntary membership in the Waffen SS . . . as a bar per se under Section 13.” (emphasis added). In response, Wittje cites to a March, 1951, act of Congress, Pub. L. No. 82-14, ch. 23, 65 Stat. 28 (1951), and a 1951 DPC regulation. These documents, Wittje insists, retrospectively appended a voluntariness requirement to § 13. We disagree. As we have pointed out, the lawfulness of Wittje’s entry into the United States must be determined under the law in effect at the time he entered. Any subsequent change (as the act of Congress and the DPC regulation were) has no bearing on the lawfulness of Wittje’s entry into this country. In 1950, when Wittje applied for a visa and entered this country, a member of the Waffen SS was ineligible to receive a visa, regardless of the voluntariness of that membership.