Trial opens for man accused of helping Nazis

BRADENTON -- A Lithuanian immigrant accused of collaborating with the Nazis during World War II lied on immigration forms to gain entry into the United States, government lawyers said as his deportation trial opened.

But the attorney representing Algimantas Dailide, 81, of St. Petersburg, argued Monday that the documents on which prosecutors base their case may be fakes.

More than 50,000 Jews were killed at Nazi-run execution pits in Paneriai, a Lithuanian camp near where Dailide worked.

From 1941 to 1944, government lawyers say, Dailide turned Jews over to occupying Nazi forces to be killed. In 1950, they said, Dailide lied on immigration forms to enter the United States, saying he was a forester and denying he served on police forces in the war.

Defense attorney Joseph T. McGinniss spent most of the day arguing that Lithuania-related documents captured from Nazi files were possible fakes.

In interviews, Dailide has said his job was to arrest communist sympathizers after the Nazis gained control of Lithuania from Russia.

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