VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- An accused Nazi, who lived in the United States for nearly 45 years before being deported, arrived in Austria a free man Tuesday, police said.

Ferdinand Hammer, 78, arrived at the Vienna airport without incident, Col. Alfred Rupf of the airport police said.The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service picked up Hammer early Monday at his home in Sterling Heights, Mich., and deported him, attorney William Bufalino II said.

In Austria, Hammer faces no charges, the Austria Press Agency said. Neither Simon Wiesenthal's Jewish Documentation Center nor the Austrian Justice Ministry has any record on punishable offenses committed by Hammer.

He became a naturalized American citizen in 1963 but was stripped of citizenship in May 1996 for concealing his membership in Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS "Death's Head Battalion" during World War II. He emigrated to the United States in 1955.

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According to APA news agency, Hammer's deportation is based on a 1954 agreement requiring Vienna to take back any Austrian

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