The Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations has filed suit to revoke the citizenship of a Chicago man accused of having taken part in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution during World War II.
Joseph Grabauskas, a retired chemist, is accused of having served as an officer in the 2nd Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft (Protective Detachment) Battalion in Byelorussia, now Belarus.
Grabauskas, 73, whose first name is also given as Juozas, joined the 2nd Battalion as a 2nd lieutenant in July 1941 and in this position allegedly participated in Nazi-sponsored persecution.
According to the government complaint, Grabauskas concealed his wartime activities when applying to immigrate to the United States in 1949 and when he applied for citizenship in 1955.
He could not be reached for comment.
From 1941 to 1942, the 2nd Battalion participated in the mass murder of thousands of unarmed Jews and others in Byelorussia.
The killings were conducted under the rubric of Operation Barbarossa, a campaign launched June 21, 1941, in which the Nazis recruited local collaborators for mobile killing squads that eradicated whole towns and villages.
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