NEW YORK, Feb. 2 (JTA) — An Ohio man who had assisted
in the persecution of Jews during World War II has been stripped of
his U.S. citizenship by a federal judge in Algimantis Dailide, 75, had served in the Vilnius Saugumas, the Lithuanian security service whose responsibilities paralleled those of the Gestapo, and had concealed his wartime past when entering the United States in 1949, Judge Paul Matia said last week. Dailide, a Cleveland-area real estate agent, served in the Saugumas from 1941 to 1944 and “assisted in persecution of civilian populations,” the judge said Jan. 30, making him ineligible for U.S. citizenship. The court’s decision cited documents showing that Dailide took part in the arrest and search of Jews trying to flee their forcible confinement in Vilnius. One document showed that Jews arrested by Dailide were destined to be shot and killed at Paneriai, a wooded area near Vilnius. Nearly 55,000 of Vilnius’ 60,000 Jews died at Paneriai during the Nazi occupation. Dailide had entered the United States in 1949 under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, claiming that he was a forester from 1942 to 1944 and specifically denying any police service. This is the third case in which the Office of Special Investigations, the Nazi-hunting arm of the U.S. Justice Department, has sought and obtained the denaturalization of members of the Vilnius Saugumas. In May, a federal court in Boston ordered the denaturalization of Vilnius Province Saugumas Chief Aleksandras Lileikis. He subsequently fled the United States and returned to Lithuania in June. In 1994, Kazys Gimzauskas, Lileikis’ deputy and a former resident of St. Petersburg, Fla., abandoned his U.S. residence and returned to Lithuania while still under OSI investigation. His citizenship was revoked in June. Lileikis and Gimzauskas were Dailide’s superiors. A denaturalization suit is pending against Adolph Milius, who served in the Saugumas and who now lives in Tampa, Fla.
