U.S. Moves Against Two Alleged War Criminals

Two alleged Nazi war criminals face revocation of their citizenship and deportation for concealing their past activities during World War II when applying for citizenship to this country, according to two separate complaints filed by the federal government.

The government charged in Federal District Court in Newark, N.J. that 65-year-old Juoza Kungys, had falsified information in his visa and citizenship applications to conceal his participation with German forces in the firing squad murders of 2,000 Jews near the village of Kedainiai around August 1941.

The complaint against Kungys, a Clifton, N.J. dentist, also said that he had not revealed that around July 1941 he participated in the killing of approximately 100 unarmed civilians near Babences, Lithuania. Kungys vehemently denied the charges to reporters last week, adding, “This is slander — it’s the Russians who are doing this.” He said he knew of no mass slayings in either Kedainiai or Babences.

Meanwhile in Sacramento, Calif., Otto Albrecht Alfried von Bolschwing has been given until Aug. 10 to respond to a complaint filed May 27 by the Justice Department for concealing his membership in the Nazi Party, the SS and the Sicherheitsdienst, the SS intelligence and security arm, when he obtained U.S. citizenship in 1959.

The defendant’s response, unusual in a case like this, will be sealed by orders of presiding Federal District Judge Milton Schwartz, because the case involves, according to United States Attorney William Shubb, “the potential of some classified information.” Von Bolschwing, 71, who resides in Carmichael, Calif., maintains that he served for the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.