FORMER MEMBER OF LITHUANIAN MOBILE KILLING
           UNIT RELINQUISHES UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP
                         AND DEPARTS USA


     WASHINGTTON, D.C.-- The Department of Justice announced
today that a Gulfport, Florida man who admitted serving in an
infamous Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian battalion that perpetrated
numerous mass killings of Jews and others during World War II,
has agreed to relinquish his United States citizenship and has
left the country.
     Juozas (a/k/a Joseph) Budreika, 79, admitted in an agreement
settling a denaturalization action brought against him in
September 1994 by the Criminal Division's Office of Special
Investigations (OSI) that he illegally procured his United States
citizenship and that he was not a person of good moral character
because of his service in the 2nd/12th Lithuanian
Schutzmannschaft (Protective Detachment) Battalion, and because
he willfully misrepresented and concealed this service in
applying for United States citizenship.
     The 2nd/12th Battalion was armed, sponsored and controlled
by Nazi Germany.  During 1941 and 1942, the 2nd/12th Battalion
murdered thousands of unarmed Jews and other civilians in
Lithuania and Byelorussia (now Belarus) because of their race,
religion, political beliefs, or national origin.  In Byelorussia,
the Battalion functioned largely as a mobile killing unit, waging
a town-by-town hunt for Jews and suspected communists.
     Under the terms of the agreement, Budreika, a retired cook,
agreed to depart the United States permanently and assented to
the entry of an order revoking his United States citizenship. 
Budreika left the United States by commercial airliner and
arrived yesterday in Vilnius, Lithuania.  A proposed Consent
Judgment and Order is being jointly submitted today by government
and defense counsel for approval by United States District Judge
Steven D. Merryday of the United States District Court for the
Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.
     OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum said Budreika's relinquishment
of citizenship and permanent departure from the United States is
a result of OSI's ongoing efforts to identify and take legal
action against former participants in Nazi persecution residing
in this country.  "Juozas Budreika's removal from this country is
a vindication of the principle that the United States, which is
the adopted homeland of so many victims of Nazi persecution, will
not offer sanctuary to their former tormentors."  Some 53 Nazi
persecutors have been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 46 have
now been removed from the United States since OSI began
operations in 1979.  There are more than 300 persons currently
under investigation by OSI, according to Rosenbaum.