The U.S. Department of Justice said today that it had filed actions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles against two former residents of Baltic states, who allegedly cooperated with Nazi forces in the killing of Jews during World War II.
The Justice Department asked the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia to revoke the U.S. citizenship of Arnolds Richards Truscis, 70. It asked a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service judge in Los Angeles to depart Mike Pasker of Santa Monica, California, on similar charges.
According to the suit against Truscis, he served in the auxiliary police force of the Latvian security service from 1941 to 1943, during which time he allegedly assisted German forces by guarding, beating and tormenting unarmed Jewish civilians. He later served the German SS and SD organizations that persecuted Jews in Latvia, according to the suit. The Justice Department also charged that when Truscis entered the U.S. in 1951 he “willfully concealed his membership in Latvian groups that persecuted Jews.” The Department said that “because his entry and his 1965 citizenship were both illegally obtained, the citizenship must be revoked.”
In the Los Angeles suit, the Justice Department said that Pasker, who is also known as Mecys Paskevicius, entered the U.S. in 1950 and made “misrepresentations” saying he was a “displaced person.” The suit said that in 1941-44, Pasker “helped German and Lithuanian forces who persecuted civilians in Lithuania.” The Department added that he took part in hanging and shooting 100 Jewish civilians in Lithuania in July, 1941. In August. 1979, the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles ordered Pasker’s citizenship revoked for concealing his “background” when he entered the U.S.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
