FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRM TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1996 (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO REVOKE U.S. CITIZENSHIP OF FORMER MEMBER OF NAZI-BACKED LITHUANIAN SECURITY POLICE WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The Department of Justice announced today that it began denaturalization proceedings to revoke the U.S. citizenship of a St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, man who it charged participated in the persecution of Jews during World War II. A complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Tampa by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa alleged that Adolph Milius (a/k/a Adolfas Milinavicius), 78, a retired physician, was a member of the Lithuanian Security Police (the Saugumas) for Vilnius Province during at least the summer and fall of 1941. It also alleged that during his service he participated in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution. The complaint asserted that the responsibilities of the Vilnius Saugumas closely paralleled those of the German Gestapo. Specifically, the Saugumas assisted the occupying Nazi forces by arresting, detaining, and turning over for execution or other punishment Jews who violated the Nazis' anti-Jewish decrees, Jews caught outside of or attempting to escape from the ghettos and persons who attempted to hide a Jew or assist one in escaping from the ghettos or in other ways. Original wartime records preserved in the Lithuanian Central State Archives that were cited in the complaint show that Milius participated in the arrest of Jews seeking to escape from the ghetto. The Jews were transported to the Saugumas headquarters, searched, and jailed. In May, Aleksandras Lileikis, the former chief of the Vilnius Province Saugumas, was denaturalized by order of the U.S. District Court in Boston. The court cited his involvement in the arrest and incarceration of Jews and their subsequent turnover to a special execution squad. Lileikis abandoned his residence in Norwood, Massachusetts, and fled to Lithuania in June. Also in June, Kazys Gimzauskas, a former deputy chief of the Vilnius Province Saugumas, was denaturalized. Gimzauskas lived in St. Petersburg before fleeing to Lithuania. OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum said the initiation of proceedings to denaturalize Milius is a result of OSI's ongoing efforts to identify and take legal action against former participants in Nazi persecution residing in this country. "The Vilnius Province Saugumas played a key role in the annihilation of more than 50,000 Jews in Vilnius," Rosenbaum stated. To date, 57 Nazi persecutors have been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 48 have been removed from the United States since OSI began operations in 1979. OSI is currently investigating more than 300 persons, according to Rosenbaum. # # # # 96-582