The Associated Press

CLEVELAND - A suburban Cleveland man suspected of helping the Nazis persecute Jews has avoided a fight with the government by leaving the United States and giving up his U.S. citizenship.

Jakob Miling, 79, a tailor who had lived in Lyndhurst, surrendered his citizenship at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro, this month.

Prosecutors subsequently asked a judge to dismiss its case against Miling.

Because he renounced his citizenship and was accused of being a Nazi collaborator, he cannot return to the United States - even to visit.

"The sad thing is that a lot of people who are accused of this don't have the resources, the wherewithal or the stamina to fight. He wasn't interested in fighting. He couldn't do it anymore," said Miling's attorney, Joseph McGinness.

In October, federal prosecutors accused Miling of lying to obtain his U.S. citizenship in 1972.

They said he worked at two concentration camps during World War II.

The Justice Department accused Miling, an ethnic German native of Nova Bukovica, Yugoslavia, of joining the Nazi forces in November 1942.

Prosecutors said Miling first served in the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

McGinness said his client denies that he was ever at a concentration camp.