FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   CRM
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1994                                  (202) 616-2771
                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888

            JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO REVOKE U.S. CITIZENSHIP
                  OF FORMER MEMBER OF SECURITY POLICE OF
                     NAZI-OCCUPIED VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

     CLEVELAND, OHIO -- The Department of Justice announced today
that it has commenced denaturalization proceedings in Cleveland,
Ohio, to revoke the United States citizenship of a Brecksville,
Ohio man who it said assisted in the persecution of Jews and
others while serving in the Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian Security
Police for Vilnius, Lithuania, during World War II.
     A complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Cleveland,
Ohio, by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of the
Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's office in Cleveland
alleges that Algimantas Dailide, 73, took part in Nazi-sponsored
acts of persecution while serving in the Lithuanian Security
Police (Saugumas) for Vilnius Province.
     The Vilnius Saugumas functioned as a subordinate component
of the German Security Police and Security Service and had
responsibilities which closely paralleled those of the German
Gestapo.  The Vilnius Saugumas assisted the occupying Nazi forces
in enforcing the persecutory treatment of the Vilnius Jews by,
among other things, arresting, detaining, and turning over for
execution Jews caught outside of or attempting to escape from the
inhumane barbed-wire enclosed ghettos in which they were
confined.
     The complaint also alleges that Dailide, for at least some
of his time in the Saugumas, worked for the Kommunistu-Zydu
Sekcija (Communists-Jews Section) of the Saugumas -- a section
responsible for apprehending, among others, suspected communists,
Jews living outside the ghettos in hiding or on false papers, and
non-Jews who hid, aided or traded with Jews.  Captured records
preserved in the Lithuanian Central State Archives and cited in
the complaint show that on at least one occasion, Dailide
participated in the arrest of Jews who had escaped from the
ghetto.  The records show that those Jews were transported to the
Saugumas headquarters, searched, and jailed. Jews arrested and
jailed in this fashion were routinely turned over for execution
or other punishment.
     The complaint alleges that Dailide's service with the
Saugumas constituted assistance in the Nazi program of
persecution on the basis of race, religion, and national origin
and that his service constituted membership and participation in
a movement hostile to the United States, which rendered him
ineligible to immigrate to the United States under United States
law.  The complaint also charges that Dailide willfully concealed
his wartime service on behalf of the Nazis when applying to
immigrate to the United States in 1949.
     OSI Acting Director Eli M. Rosenbaum said the initiation of
proceedings to denaturalize Dailide is a result of OSI's ongoing
efforts to identify and take legal action against the former
participants in Nazi persecution residing in this country.  Some
50 Nazi persecutors have been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 42
have 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.
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