The U.S. Justice Department had been trying for a year to have Alexandras Liliekis removed from the country. Newly declassified documents suggested that the federal government may have helped the accused Nazi collaborator enter the United States 40 years earlier.
According to documents declassified the previous month by the U.S. attorney’s office, federal officials may have overlooked Liliekis’ suspected war crimes because they wanted him to help identify Communists.
Liliekis, an 87‑year‑old Lithuanian who lived in Norwood, had been the chief of the Nazi‑sponsored Lithuanian Security Police in Vilnius from 1941 to 1944. During those years, Nazis killed 55,000 of the city’s 60,000 Jewish residents.
Immigration officials denied his first visa application in 1950 because he was believed to be a Nazi sympathizer. His second application also failed. On his third attempt, immigration officials admitted him, even though the U.S. Army had stated it believed Liliekis had helped kill Jews.
Two years later, government agents recruited Liliekis as an informant, and the U.S. State Department said the earlier visa rejections were “incorrect.”
U.S. Attorney Donald Stern denied that the government granted Liliekis a visa in exchange for information on Communists.
“There was some effort to reach out to him and see if he would cooperate with the government. … There was no deal made having in mind his level of participation in those atrocities during World War II,” Stern told WBUR‑FM.
In a statement, Stern said that while the government knew in 1955 that Liliekis had been chief of Vilnius’ Security Police during World War II, it did not know the full extent of his suspected activities until recently.
The Justice Department accused Liliekis of signing at least six orders that turned Jews over to the Nazis. Citing documents in the Lithuanian archives, the government said Liliekis had full knowledge that the Jews would be murdered.
Because of the U.S. government’s investigation, Lithuania reopened its case against Liliekis in February.
But in the 1950s, the U.S. government often ignored suspected Nazis in its pursuit of Communists, said Allan Ryan, former head of the U.S. Office of Special Investigations.
“The INS spent more time worrying about communists in the 1950s than they ever did worrying about Nazis,” he said.
Although Ryan said he doubted the government made a specific deal with Liliekis, he said it was likely that officials overlooked his connections when admitting him into the country and recruiting him as an informant.
Liliekis long claimed he had no part in the killing of Jews. He listed his position as chief of the Security Police in Vilnius on his visa applications in 1950.
The first application was denied because the government believed he was a Nazi sympathizer. His second application was denied because the government had exceeded its visa quota for Lithuanians.
In 1955, Liliekis’ application was approved. He listed his position as police chief but said he had never “advocated or assisted in the persecution of any person because of race, religion or alien nationality,” according to a 1994 federal complaint seeking his deportation.
Before admitting Liliekis into the country, immigration officials further investigated his background and discovered that the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps believed he “was possibly connected with the shooting of Jews.”
Still, Liliekis received his visa and moved to Massachusetts.
Two years after his arrival, government agents visited Liliekis at his home and asked whether he could provide information about Communists.
Their confidential report stated that Liliekis told them that because of his police work in Lithuania, he could “identify members of the Communist Party or persons engaged in subversive activities.”
The report also stated that the U.S. State Department had concluded that the original denial of Liliekis’ visa was “incorrect.”
Liliekis’ attorneys did not return telephone calls requesting comment. The phone number at his home in Norwood was unlisted.
The government asked Liliekis to respond to its complaint, but no court date had been set.
Source: Boston Globe, March 29, 1995
Compiled by the Norwood Historical Society, with the assistance of Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini.
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