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.
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