Armed with a list recently provided by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Justice Department is investigating 57 suspected Nazi war criminals believed to have escaped to the United States after World War II.
Efraim Zuroff, the Wiesenthal Center’s Nazi war crimes research coordinator, met with Eli Rosenbaum, acting director of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, last week to turn over a list of 57 Lithuanians thought to be part of the Lithuanian Auxiliary Police.
According to the Wiesenthal Center, recently released Lithuanian documents shed light on previously unknown suspected war criminals who fled to Western democracies after the war.
“This list is the first of several which we hope to make available to the U.S., British, Canadian and Australian authorities,” Zuroff said.
The OSI will examine immigration records and Lithuanian records for more details of the alleged Nazis’ activities and then try to confirm the suspected criminals’ whereabouts, Zuroff said.
Meanwhile, Zuroff met last week Lithuania’s ambassador to the United States, Adolfus Eidintas, to encourage that government to extradite Alexandras Lileikis, who allegedly headed the Lithuanian Police in Vilnius.
Now living in Norwood, Mass, Lileikis would be the first Nazi war criminal brought to trial in independent Lithuania.
The OSI recently filed a complaint calling for Lileikis’ denaturalization.
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