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Latvian Pro-Nazi
Seeks Reprieve

Ellis Island
March 7, 1992

The Rothchilds
February 29, 1992

Starring:
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The Award Winning Broadway
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New York (JTA) — A war-
time member of a pro-Nazi
killing squad in Latvia who
had been slated for
denaturalization pro-
ceedings has agreed to give
up his U.S. citizenship.
In exchange, the U.S.
government has agreed not
to pursue deportation efforts
against Mikelis Kirsteins,
74, of Utica, N.Y., who has
admitted to serving during
World War II as a member of
the elite Arajs Kommando,
the Latvian Security Auxil-
iary Police.
The agreement, which was
signed in the federal district
court in Binghamton, was
reported by Shelly Shapiro,
director of Holocaust Sur-
vivors and Friends in
Albany, a group that has
closely followed the case.
The Justice Department
later confirmed the report.
The agreement was ap-
parently sought because of
the declining health of Mr.
Kirsteins, who suffered a
stroke in July, shortly before
long-delayed denaturaliza-
tion proceedings against him
were to have begun.
Mr. Kirsteins had been
slated to appear at a
denaturalization hearing
Aug. 1.. After he was
, hospitalized, the hearing
was postponed until
January.
The nine-page consent
agreement was signed and
filed , list week. In it, the
Justice Department's Office
of Special Investigations
agreed not to bring deporta-
tion proceedings or expel Mr.
Kirsteins "unless there is
substantial improvement in
his medical condition," OSI
said in a statement.
"OSI is entitled to appoint
a physician to re-evaluate
defendant's condition at
periodic intervals up to twice
yearly," the statement said.
OSI initiated
denaturalization pro-
ceedings against Mr. Kirs-
teins in July 1987, based on
his having lied about his
wartime past when he
entered the country in 1956
and became a U.S. citizen in
1965.
OSI attorneys say that in a
1987 interview, Mr. Kirs-
teins voluntarily admitted
he had been a member of the
Arajs Kommando, which
operated under the German
Security Police and SD, the
SS Security Service. The
group traveled through Lat-
via, carrying out mass ex-
ecutions of Jews and others.
Mr. Kirsteins participated

in an "aktion" in the
Birkinicki Forest in Riga, in
which Jewish men, women
and children were lined up
in front of a mass grave and
shot to death.
The group's commander,
Viktors Arajs, was convicted
by a West German court in
1979 for the murder of at
least 13,000 people during
the Nazi occupation of Lat-
via. He served a life term in
a West German prison,
where he died in 1988.
In September 1989, U.S.
District Judge Thomas
McAvoy suppressed Mr.
Kirsteins' admissions, since
he was not accompanied by
an attorney at the interview.
Justice Department offi-
cials contended that Mr.
Kirsteins had done so by his
own choice, despite OSI's
advice in writing. Moreover,

OSI initiated
denaturalization
proceedings
against Mr.
Kirsteins in July
1987, based on
his having lied
about his wartime
past.

they said that a civil case did
not warrant telling him he
could bring counsel.
Reacting to news of the
consent agreement, Elliot
Welles, director of the Anti-
Defamation League's Nazi
Task Force, said, "I still feel
he should be deported to
Latvia and face trial by a
Latvian court.
"The Arajs Kommando
had no pity on women and
children. They shot them in
cold blood," said Mr. Welles,
whose own mother was
killed by the Arajs Kom-
mando.
The group "enjoyed killing
Jews even more than the
Germans," said Mr. Welles,
who survived the Riga
Ghetto, where the Arajs
Kommando operated. "We
look forward to the Latvian
court putting him on trial,
regardless of his reasons of
health. I do not think there
should be any pity."
OSI Director Neal Sher
said in a statement, "There
is nothing in the consent
judgment that would pre-
vent a foreign government
having criminal jurisdiction
from seeking Kirsteins'
extradition to stand trial
abroad."

