Florida man accused of aiding Nazis

NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (JTA) — The United States has initiated proceedings to revoke the citizenship of a Florida man accused of persecuting Jews during World War II. Adolph Milius, 78, a retired physician from St. Petersburg Beach, Fla., is suspected of being a member of the Saugumas, the Lithuanian security police, for the Vilnius province in the summer and fall of 1941. The responsibilities of the Vilnius Saugumas paralleled those of the Nazi Gestapo. The Office of Special Investigations, the Nazi-hunting arm of the U.S. Justice Department, filed a complaint Dec. 10 in U.S. District Court in Tampa. The complaint specifically alleges that Milius, also known as Adolfas Milinavicius, took part in the arrest of Jews seeking to escape the Vilnius ghetto. The complaint cites original wartime records in the Lithuanian Central State Archives. “The Vilnius province Saugumas played a key role in the annihilation of more than 50,000 Jews in Vilnius,” said Eli Rosenbaum, OSI director. In May, the United States denaturalized Aleksandras Lileikis, former chief of the Vilnius Saugumas. He has since fled to Lithuania. In June, Kazys Gimzauskas, former deputy chief of the Vilnius Saugumas, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship. He also has since fled to Lithuania.