State Department - 05.24.2002

 

U.S. Department of State

International Information Programs


Florida Man Ordered Deported for Role in Nazi Crimes in Lithuania

Algimantas Dailide persecuted Jews in Nazi-occupied Vilnius in World
War II

A federal immigration court in Tampa has ordered the deportation to
Lithuania of a Gulfport, Florida, man found to have participated in
the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Vilnius, Lithuania, during
World War II.

"Algimantas Dailide, 81, then a member of the Nazi-sponsored
Lithuanian Security Police (the Saugumas), took part in the wartime
arrest of Jewish men, women and children who were attempting to escape
from forced confinement in the Vilnius Jewish ghetto," according to a
May 23 press release from the Department of Justice.

The release said Dailide lied about his wartime activities when he
entered the United States in 1950 and that his U.S. citizenship was
revoked in 1997 after a federal court in Ohio confirmed his role in
the arrests.

Following is the text of the release:

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U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.
May 23, 2002 
www.usdoj.gov 

COURT ORDERS DEPORTATION OF FLORIDA MAN FOR ROLE IN NAZI CRIMES
AGAINST JEWS IN WARTIME LITHUANIA

WASHINGTON D.C.- The Department of Justice announced that a federal
immigration court in Tampa has ordered a Gulfport, Florida, man
deported to Lithuania for participating in the persecution of Jews in
Nazi-occupied Vilnius, Lithuania, during World War II.

In a 33-page opinion issued yesterday, U.S. Immigration Judge Mahlon
F. Hanson found that in the fall of 1941, Algimantas Dailide, 81, then
a member of the Nazi-sponsored Lithuanian Security Police (the
Saugumas), took part in the wartime arrest of Jewish men, women and
children who were attempting to escape from forced confinement in the
Vilnius Jewish ghetto. A federal court in Ohio revoked Dailide's U.S.
citizenship in 1997, after confirming his role in the arrests.

The Lithuanian Police systematically investigated, arrested, and
turned over for punishment and execution Jews who attempted to escape
from the barbed-wire enclosed Vilnius ghetto, as well as any person
who tried to help Jews. Dailide joined the Saugumas in 1941, and
served until 1944, when the Nazis fled Vilnius. He entered the U.S. in
1950, after falsely telling U.S. immigration officials that he had
been a "forester" during the war.

The court's decision noted that the Jews arrested by Dailide were
either shot at execution pits at Paneriai, a wooded area outside
Vilnius, where some 50,000 Jews were murdered during the war, or were
returned to the Vilnius ghetto for further confinement under "inhumane
and grotesque conditions." Ultimately, nearly all of the Jews in the
ghetto were executed.

Judge Hanson wrote: "Although sixty years have passed, it is important
that [Dailide] be held accountable for his actions. His participation
in these crimes against humanity and the suffering of his innocent
victims will not be ignored or forgotten."

Michael Chertoff, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division
stated, "This ruling sends an important message to those who took part
in atrocities, and to those who might seek to repeat such crimes, that
they will be pursued and brought to justice."

OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum added, "In just a few months in the fall
of 1941, the Nazis, with the willing assistance of local collaborators
like Dailide, murdered most of the Jewish population of Lithuania. He
is not entitled to the privilege of continued U.S. residence."

OSI previously obtained the denaturalization of three of Dailide's
Saugumas colleagues. In 1996, a federal court in Boston denaturalized
Vilnius Saugumas Chief Aleksandras Lileikis, who then fled to
Lithuania and died there awaiting trial for war crimes. In 1996, a
federal court in Washington, DC, revoked the citizenship of Kazys
Gimzauskas, Lileikis' deputy and a former resident of St. Petersburg,
Florida, who had moved back to Lithuania while under investigation by
OSI. In February 2001, Gimzauskas was convicted by a Lithuanian court
of participating in genocide. In 1998, a federal court in Tampa
denaturalized Adolph Milius of St. Petersburg, who participated with
Dailide in the arrests of Jewish civilians. Milius also fled to
Lithuania, where he died in 1999.

The Dailide deportation case, which was handled by OSI last July, is a
result of the unit's ongoing efforts to identify and take legal action
against former participants in Nazi persecution residing in this
country. To date, 67 Nazi persecutors have been stripped of U.S.
citizenship and 55 have been removed from the United States since OSI
began operations in 1979. More than 170 persons are currently under
investigation by the unit.

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