Anton Geiser’s life has played out like many in the Shenango Valley.

The native of Yugoslavia — now part of Croatia — grew up on a farm, broke his mother’s heart when he came to the United States, worked at Sharon Steel Corp. for 31 years, and raised three children.

Now 81, Geiser has lived quietly in the Shenango Valley for 47 years, 45 of them at his current address, 411 Cedar Ave. in Sharon.

What separates Geiser from all those other immigrants who have passed through the area, according to the federal government, is that he was a concentration camp guard for the German army during World War II.

Even though he claimed to have never harmed or mistreated a prisoner, and had no knowledge of what atrocities went on in the camps where he served, Geiser, assigned to the Nazi Waffen SS, was so ashamed of his service that he kept it to himself. He did not reveal it to his children until the government started investigating him.

With the government seeking to revoke Geiser’s citizenship and deport him, the question that a federal judge is being asked to answer is simple: Did Geiser’s service as a concentration camp guard render him inadmissible under laws that existed when he came to the United States in 1956?

The government says concentration camp guards could not be admitted, period.

Geiser’s attorneys say the State Department allowed concentration camp guards who did not commit atrocities to be admitted to the United States.

Both sides have asked U.S. District Court Judge David S. Cercone, Pittsburgh, to make a decision based on the information they have developed.

Yugoslavian farm boy

Geiser was born Oct. 17, 1924, in Djak-Selci, a town of about 1,600 in what is now in the western part of Croatia. He was reared on a farm, without electricity or machinery, that grew wheat, corn and potatoes. He had one brother and three sisters.

His family was ethnic German — as was about one-third of the town — but the town also had people of Croatian, Hungarian and Slovakian background. The family spoke German at home, but Geiser became fluent in Croatian and Serbian and understands some Hungarian.

He went to school only four years. The classrooms were segregated according to ethnicity, but the languages of other town residents were taught to all students.

Each nationality also had its own “home” in town, a place for socializing and meetings.

Neighborhood watch