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"This is a significant victory," Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, said.

"The ruling reaffirms that those who helped the Nazis carry out their programs of murder and oppression may not claim the privilege of U.S. residence."

The U.S. District Court in Detroit stripped Hammer of his U.S. citizenship last May on the grounds that the retired foundry supervisor lied about his wartime past when he applied for naturalization in 1963.