Prosecution and defense attorneys have rested their cases in the federal government’s effort to strip a former mayor of the capital of Lithuania of his American citizenship on grounds he lied about his collaboration with the Nazis when he applied for citizenship.
Federal District Judge Robert Morgan is presiding in the non-jury trial here of Kazys Palciauskas, now a 75-year-old St. Petersburg Beach resident. The U.S. Justice Department charged the defendant entered the United States illegally under the Displaced Persons Act 33 years ago by hiding his collaboration with the Nazis during the German occupation of Kaunas. The trial began here December 6.
After the attorneys completed their presentations, Judge Morgan gave them until February 15 to submit written arguments. It was indicated Judge Morgan would not rule until early in 1983 on whether Palciauskas should be stripped of his citizenship.
Palciauskas has been charged by eye-witnesses at the hearing here with helping the Nazis herd 22,000 Jews into Villijampole (Slobodka), a Kaunas slum area, and allegedly issuing curfew orders for the Jews, requiring them to wear a Star of David and stripping them of their possessions for swift deportation by the Nazis.
Federal attorneys testified that the defendant falsely swore he “had not voluntarily assisted any country at war with the allied nations” and that on his application forms for entry to the United States he had listed himself as a clerk in the Kaunas government.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
