By NATALI WYSON

An 83-year-old man who served as a Nazi guard more than half a century ago has been ordered by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court to have his citizenship revoked and be deported. This man is not alone.

The Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation is continuing efforts to find and prosecute people who had Nazi ties during World War II. Students at BYU have mixed feelings about these actions.

"I would say, in that situation, to just let him continue on with his life," said Diana Ririe, a junior majoring in exercise science. "It would be different if he wasn't a citizen. To me, it would depend on his attitude towards everything that happened during the war and what he was doing with his life at this point."

Senior Collin Wicks said he doesn't understand why the ex-Nazis are being singled out. He said he thinks there is a time when the world just needs to accept that this all happened in the past.

"There comes a point," Wicks said, "where you kind of have to say, 'They did bad things, they made mistakes but they can't be brought to punishment for something that happened that long ago.'"

Wicks said he thinks the only reason they should be punished now is if they have continued to promote the Nazi cause after the war.

Though he is of Jewish descent and has that tragedy in his ancestral history, advertising student Matthew Bender agreed with other students that there comes a time when people should no longer be prosecuted for those crimes.

"Obviously what happened before was horrible," Bender said. "But if he has been here and been a good citizen and has a family here, it seems like he has changed. It might be kind of harsh to throw him out."

Aside from the issue of time, Derek Baker, a senior majoring in French said he's not sure he agrees that people who were in the army should be punished for things they did under the command of their superiors.

"I'm not a supporter of war, but I feel like war is inevitable," Baker said. "But just as with the war in Iraq, when soldiers are ordered to do something, they just do it.

"I think it would be unjust to hold these Nazi's accountable for being in the army in Germany and following the demands given by Hitler. However, depending on the severity of what they did, there can always be exceptions. But in concerns to this case, I don't think they should be deporting him."

Copyright Brigham Young University 2 Jul 2008