U.s., Canada Launch Proceedings Against Accused Ex-nazi Officials

The U.S. Justice Department has launched proceedings to strip an Illinois man of his citizenship.

Juozas “Joe” Naujalis, 74, is accused of taking part in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution while serving in a Lithuanian mobile killing unit during the war.

The complaint, filed in Chicago earlier this month, also charges that Naujalis gave false testimony and concealed his wartime activities when applying to immigrate to the United States in 1949.

The move comes as a Lithuanian prosecutor announced that two officials from Canada’s Justice Department will go to the Baltic nation to collect evidence against four accused Nazi war criminals.

The Canadian officials, from the department’s Crime Against Humanity and War Crimes Section, will go to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius next month to look at archives in connection with four Lithuanian emigres in Canada, Aristidas Pestininkas, Lithuania’s prosecutor in charge of war crimes, was quoted as saying Monday.

“The cases involve the murder of Jewish citizens during the war,” said Pestininkas, who did not offer specifics.

The prosecutor added that his department would cooperate with Canadian and U.S. officials.

However, Lithuania appears to be putting aside the possible extradition of at least one man in the United States accused of war crimes.

The Lithuanian government said in a cable filed in U.S. District Court on Oct. 2 that even though an extradition treaty between the United States and Lithuania signed in 1924 is in force, it is not legally effective in the case of 88-year-old Aleksandras Lileikis.

Lileikis, the former head of the Vilnius Gestapo during World War II, is accused of signing orders that sent as many as 40,000 Jews to Nazi death camps.

At least 55,000 Vilnius Jews and 220,000 Lithuanian Jews were killed during the Holocaust.