The U.S. Justice Department has initiated legal proceedings to denaturalize an Indiana man who allegedly lied about his wartime past when he entered the United States.
The denaturalization complaint against Kazys Ciurinskas of Crown Point, Ind., was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Hammond, Ind., by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Dyer, Ind.
The complaint charges that Ciurinskas served in the 2nd Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft, or police battalion, during World War II.
OSI claims Ciurinskas, who is now 75, joined the 2nd Battalion in July 1941 and participated in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution.
The complaint charges that Ciurinskas willfully concealed his wartime service when applying to immigrate to the United States in 1949 and when applying to become a U.S. citizen in 1954. He immigrated to the United States from Germany.
OSI Director Neal Sher said in a statement that the 2nd Battalion was armed, sponsored and controlled by Nazi Germany.
He said that from 1941 to 1942, the battalion murdered thousands of unarmed Jews and other civilians on the basis of their race, religion or national origin.
The battalion operated in Lithuania and neighboring Byelorussia, now called Belarus.
The complaint says that Ciurinskas should be denaturalized because he obtained his visa and U.S. citizenship by concealing and misrepresenting his wartime activities.
To date, 44 Nazi persecutors have been denaturalized as a result of OSI’s investigations, and 33 have been removed from the United States.
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