FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         CRM
FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1995                                202-514-2007
                                               (TDD) 202-514-1888


     APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS ORDER REVOKING CITIZENSHIP OF EDITOR
     OF WORLD WAR II PRO-NAZI AND ANTI-SEMITIC HUNGARIAN
     NEWSPAPER 


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced
today that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has
unanimously affirmed a court order revoking the U.S. citizenship
of Ferenc Koreh of Englewood, New Jersey, based on his activities
during World War II as the editor of a virulently anti-Semitic,
pro-Nazi and anti-American newspaper in Nazi-allied Hungary.
     The court's opinion upheld the June 1994 decision of U.S.
District Court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry in Newark.  Judge Barry
awarded summary judgment to the government on finding that
Koreh's admitted service as "Responsible Editor" of Szekely Nep
constituted "advocacy and assistance in persecution" and
"membership and participation in a movement hostile to the United
States."
     Koreh, 85, a retired Radio Free Europe producer and
broadcaster, has not contested the charge that articles published
in the provincial newspaper Szekely Nep in 1941 and 1942, a
period in which he admitted serving as the "Responsible Editor"
of the newspaper, were anti-Semitic and anti-Allied.  These
articles attributed the outbreak of World War II to world Jewry,
blamed various social and economic ills in Hungary on its Jewish
minority and, as the appeals court's 27-page decision noted,
"frequently advocated anti-Semitic legislation and enforcement
actions that were more severe than those which had already been
enacted."  The court cited the Nuremberg conviction of Nazi
propagandist Julius Streicher as recognizing "the nexus between
propaganda and persecution."  (Streicher was sentenced to death
and hanged.)
     The decision quoted excerpts from articles published under
Koreh's tenure at Szekely Nep that portrayed Jews as "enemies of
our race" who are of "alien character" and possess a "merciless
plan to destroy Hungarians" and to "rule over all the other
peoples of the earth."   The court further cited the newspaper's
quotation of a German publication's statement that "a final
solution may be achieved only by deporting Jewish elements."  One
article demanded that the Hungarian government "send the Jews
packing," the court noted.  Another quoted article asserted,
"There are still those who say we should not have harmed the
Jews, but thank God today we are beyond these types of
sentimentality."  The opinion also cited Koreh's admission that
Szekely Nep published anti-Semitic material "to please the
Germans."
     The opinion by Chief Judge Dolores K. Sloviter ruled that
the undisputed facts showed that Koreh's involvement in the
publication of such articles "assisted in the persecution of
Hungarian Jews by fostering a climate of anti-Semitism in
Northern Transylvania which conditioned the Hungarian public to
acquiesce, to encourage, and to carry out the abominable anti-
Semitic policies of the Hungarian government in the early 1940s." 
Approximately 435,000 Hungarian Jews were deported between May
and July of 1944 to Nazi concentration and death camps, such as
Auschwitz.  
     In June 1989, the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and
the U.S. Attorneys Office in Newark filed a 10-count complaint
alleging that Koreh's activities during World War II, including
his positions as Responsible Editor at Szekely Nep, as Press
Officer in the Press Department of the Hungarian Government's
Ministry of Propaganda, and as Responsible Editor of the anti-
Allied weekly Vilaglap, and his subsequent war crimes conviction
by a Hungarian court in 1947, made Koreh ineligible for the visa
he received in 1950 to enter the United States.  The complaint
charged that his 1956 naturalization was illegally and
fraudulently procured.
     OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum stated that the decision
upholding the denaturalization order against Koreh is "another
important step forward" in OSI's ongoing efforts to identify and
take legal action against former participants in Nazi persecution
who reside in the United States.  To date, he noted, 50 such
persons have been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 43 have been
removed from the United States.
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