Lithuania suspects prominent Israeli Holocaust researcher of war crimes during WWII

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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http://www.interfax-news.com/3/News.aspx


Lithuania suspects prominent Israeli Holocaust researcher of war 
crimes during WWII

      VILNIUS.  Sept  11  (Interfax)  -  Lithuania has requested that the
Israeli  authorities  facilitate  the questioning of prominent historian
and Holocaust researcher Yitzhak Arad regarding his partisan past during
World War  II  and  his  supposed subsequent service for the Soviet NKVD
security police.

      "The pretrial investigation documents of this criminal case include
enough data to assume that the suspect Yitzhak Arad might have committed
criminal deeds in Lithuania," the Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office
said in a press release.

      According  to the Lithuanian prosecution authorities, Arad joined a
Soviet partisan  squad  while Lithuania was occupied by Nazi Germany and
then served  with the NKVD. He is suspected of involvement in executions
of Lithuanian  civilians  and  members  of  the  anti-Soviet  resistance
movement, the statement says.

      Following  WWII,  Arad  served for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
and was  promoted  to  brigadier  general.  After retirement in 1972, he
became a  historian  and  a Holocaust researcher. He was the director of
Yad Vashem,  the  Israeli  Holocaust Remembrance Authority, for 21 years
from 1972 to 1991.