Tailor Accused of Persecuting Jews in WWII Freed on Bail

PHILADELPHIA — A Ukrainian-born tailor accused of helping the Nazis persecute Jews during World War II has been released on bail pending a deportation hearing, authorities said.

Serge Kowalchuk, 65, of Philadelphia, posted $5,000 bail and was released Friday, said William Wolf, deputy director of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations.

Kowalchuk was taken into custody after the Supreme Court last week refused to hear his bid to keep his U.S. citizenship. A federal appeals court ruled last September that the former Ukrainian policeman should be stripped of his citizenship because of “willful material misrepresentations” about his past when he was granted citizenship in 1960.