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I鈥檓 Not A War Criminal: Pensioner
Bob Walker
A Nottingham pensioner under investigation for alleged war crimes has insisted he鈥檚 innocent.
Julius Damasevicius, who fled to this country from Lithuania after the Second World War, laughed off suggestions of involvement in atrocities when questioned by this programme.
He was just 16 when Hitler invaded Lithuania, driving out occupying Soviet Union troops. He was taken to Germany and made to work on a farm, but he escaped and fled back to his homeland. He insists he then joined the Lithuanian Army to 鈥渇ight communists.鈥
Mr Damasevicius told me that Soviet and Lithuanian communists were responsible for many massacres and outrages in his country and he was determined to fight back.
His battalion also provided guards for the construction of a highway connecting Poland and the Ukraine. Tens of thousands of prisoners and civilians died during the forced construction of the Durchgangstrasse 4 highway. Many died from torture and malnutrition. Others were summarily executed by their captors.
Mr Damasevicius admits that he was assigned to the construction project, but insists he was only there for a few weeks before falling ill and being transferred back to Lithuania for an operation. He strongly denies either taking part in, or witnessing any atrocities.
He says civilians working on the road along his section were allowed to return to their villages every night.
The inquiry was launched by the Metropolitan Police - who are responsible for investigating war crimes - after they received information from the Simon Wiesenthal centre in Israel. A spokesman for the Met confirmed that the investigation was continuing but declined to give any further details.
Rimvydas Valentukevicius, the head of Lithuania鈥檚 war crimes investigations unit said their records confirmed that Mr Damasevicius had been part of the Lithuanian army / police Vilnius battalion. But he added that the old KGB files now in their hands held no other details on Mr Damasevicius.
鈥淲e have given all the information we have to the British police,鈥 said Mr Valentukevicius. 鈥淚t is now up to them.鈥
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Lenin monument is loaded onto a truck after being toppled in Lithuanian, USSR, Aug. 23, 1991. Earlier, the Lithuanian Parliament banned the Communist Party in Lithuania
Thousands of Lithuanian Jews were brutalised by the Nazis
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