Anthony Sawoniuk, born Andrei Sawoniuk (, Andrej Savaniuk; 7 March 1921 – 6 November 2005) was a Belarusian Nazi collaborator from the town of Damačava in Brest Region. After taking part in the murder of the Jewish community in his home town, Sawoniuk served in the SS until November 1944 when he defected to the Polish II Corps in the British Eighth Army. After the war, he settled in Britain, became a British citizen, and became the first (and currently the only) person to be convicted under the UK's War Crimes Act 1991, when he was found guilty of war crimes for the murder of 18 Jews in 1999. Sawoniuk received a life sentence, and died in prison six years later. Early life Andrei Sawoniuk was born in Domaczewo, Poland (now Damačava, Belarus), a spa town on the Bug River. At that time 90% of the town's population were ethnic Jews, with the remainder being Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians and German Volksdeutsche. Sawoniuk, nicknamed "Andrusha" (a Russian and Belarusian diminutive of Andrey), has been described as Belarusian, though some newspaper reports say that his mother was Polish, Sawoniuk never knew the identity of his father, although townspeople believed him to be Josef Jakubiak, the town's Jewish schoolmaster, because his mother Pelagia had been working as a cleaner at Jakubiak's school and home during the months when Sawoniuk was conceived. Andrei used the patronymic "Andreeovich", which does not appear in the Polish language. His mother's former husband also had the name Andrei. The family were poor: his mother worked washing clothes while Sawoniuk and his half-brother collected firewood to sell. Sawonuik also worked as a sabbath goy: a gentile employed by Orthodox Jews to carry out Sabbath tasks that were forbidden to them, such as lighting fires or chopping wood. He learnt basic Yiddish from his employers. Actions during and after World War II During World War II Sawoniuk was a member of the local Nazi-supported Belarusian Auxiliary Police and rose to the rank of Commandant. While serving in the police he participated in the murdering of Jews. In 1944 Sawoniuk fled westwards when the Red Army advanced towards Domaczewo and in July 1944 joined the German armed forces, serving in the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. He deserted from the SS in November 1944 and changed sides, using his Polish birth certificate to join the 10th Hussar Regiment of