Queens, NY - Students Protest Nazi Among Them

Queens, NY - A U.S. congressman rallied alongside hundreds of Jewish teenagers outside the home of a former Nazi camp guard - but some of the man's Jackson Heights neighbors say they should just leave the old man alone.

Jakiw Palij, 84, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship three years ago by a judge who ruled that Palij lied when he applied for an immigrant visa in 1949. But he has not been deported because the government can't find a country to accept him - which the activists said was unacceptable.
"No one is going to hide in our midst," declared U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens). "Thousands and thousands of people were murdered by this monster. He's not paying for his crimes by living here in a peaceful block in Jackson Heights."

Several hundred students from Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence, L.I., chanted, "We will not be silent!" and "Show your face!" outside Palij's home on 89th Street.

But several of Palij's neighbors, who describe him as quiet and frail, disagreed with the protesters. "It's wrong; why don't they just leave the people alone?" said Abraham Pabon, 48, a truck driver. "Everybody has a life to live. It's like they say, God forgives. It's very, very wrong what they're doing here."