The government is instituting proceedings against two alleged Nazi collaborators for concealing their participation in crimes against Jews and others when they applied for admission to the United States.
Facing possible revokation of citizenship and deportation are Kazys Palciauskas, former mayor of Kaunas, Lithuania, who allegedly falsified his war-time activities when he was granted U.S. citizenship in 1954; and Edgars Laipenieks, who was a member of the Nazi-affiliated Latvian political police between 1941-1943.
The Justice Department has already filed deportation proceedings against Laipenieks, 67, who lives in Valley Center, Calif. and is seeking to deprive Palciauskas, a resident of St. Petersburg, Fla. of his citizenship. Laipenieks has been served with an order to show cause why he should not be deported for concealing his war-time activities when he applied for a U.S. visa in Chile in 1960. He is alleged to have committed acts of persecution against civilians because of race, religion, national origin or political opinion. His membership in the Latvian political police constituted assistance to Nazi Germany, the Justice Department contends.
According to U.S. District Attorney Gary Betz in Tampa, Fla., Palciauskas ordered Jews confined to the Kaunas ghetto and confiscated their valuable. But there is no evidence that he was directly involved in the executions of 12,000 Jews in the Latvian capital in October, 1941, Betz said.
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.
