Washington  - The United States has deported to Austria an accused Nazi war criminal who settled in Wisconsin following World War II, the US Justice Department announced Thursday.

Josias Kumpf, 83, allegedly served as as guard as a member of the SS-Death Head division and participated in the November 3, 1943 massacre of 8,000 Jews at the Trawniki labour camp in Poland. He was also a guard at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany.

"Josias Kumpf, by his own admission, stood guard with orders to shoot any surviving prisoners who attempted to escape an SS massacre that left thousands of Jews dead," Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M Glavin said.

The Justice Department said that Kumpf has said his assignment was to watch for victims who were still "halfway alive" or "convulsing" and prevent their escape. His job was to "shoot them to kill" if they tried to escape.

The Serbian born Kumpf immigrated to the United States from Austria in 1956 and became a US citizen in 1964. (dpa)