WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) - In the annals of the Holocaust, a story that more than two dozen Lithuanian Jews were killed as a prize for winning a basketball game shocks even those who have made it their life's work to bring accused war criminals to justice.

The account of the killings - part of mass executions by Lithuanians of Jews in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1941 - was detailed in a 2001 book, "The Unconquered," by Israeli writer Alex Faitelson. He cited eyewitness accounts dating to 1948.

Twin brothers who now live in Waterbury were among those named as members of the Lithuanian team and received broad publicity in a recent ESPN documentary. The allegation was forwarded to Lithuanian prosecutors by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization.

Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi hunter for the Wiesenthal center's Jerusalem office, said a "suggestion was made that the brothers were there."

It was enough to seek an investigation by Lithuanian authorities.

"To the best of my knowledge there was never an incident when a sports team participated in the murder of Jews in the Holocaust," Zuroff said. "As a unit, this is unique."

The brothers, 83-year-old Algirdas and Vytautas Norkus, vigorously deny the allegations.

"It never happened," Algirdas Norkus said. "We were like heroes and suddenly it comes on television and everything, a film accused us of killing. It is terrible."

Vytautas Norkus refused to discuss the matter, except to reject the allegation.

"We deny all the nonsense," he said. "They're destroying us. It's not very pleasant, thank you."

The state prosecutor's office in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius was skeptical of the accounts. Vidmantas Putelis, a spokesman for the office, told The Associated Press that Zuroff has given prosecutors information and authorities were checking it.

"At this point, we see this information is based on rumors," Putelis said. "This can't be legal grounds for starting a case."

A formal investigation has not been started and charges have not been filed.

Faitelson stands by the eyewitness accounts. The Norkus brothers "collaborated with the German occupation forces. They cannot deny it," he said.

Faitelson, who is a Lithuanian Holocaust survivor, described eyewitness accounts of mass killings at a one-time Russian fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, in July 1941 before and after the Lithuanian team defeated the German team.

"In the darkness of the night we noticed that they had selected 30 out of the mass of people and led them toward the embankment," according to an eyewitness account cited by Faitelson in his book.

"A little later and we heard the familiar muffled rifle shots. The masters of the Baltic states, the Lithuanian basketball champions, repeated their 'sportsmanlike' business and having drunk of innocent Jewish blood left the square singing."

In his modest home in Waterbury, Algirdas Norkus, a retired engineer for a brass manufacturer, proudly points to a framed certificate on his living room wall that, translated from Lithuanian, celebrates the 75th anniversary of the "virtuoso" national basketball team in 1996, he said.

The accusation that he and his brother are war criminals is "a torture," he said.

Algirdas, who emigrated to the United States in 1949 and was drawn to Waterbury's large Lithuanian population, said he did not play on the basketball team. His brother, who was 2 inches taller than he was, played instead, he said.

Two games - among top Lithuanian teams and against a German national team - were played in 1939 when Lithuania was still independent.

"How could the Germans give permission to kill?" he asked.

But a historian says a German OK would not have been needed. Killings of civilians were common in June and July 1941, shortly before Lithuania, which shifted back and forth between German and Soviet control, was overrun by Germany.

"It was a kind of a free-for-all in the weeks between the retreat of the Soviets and the arrival of the Germans against Jews and communists," said Peter Black, senior historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Commission.

He cited a combination of motives for ordinary Lithuanians to kill: "A hatred of communists, prejudice against Jews, German propaganda, right wing Lithuanian propaganda and a sense of helplessness under Russian occupation."

"It led to this explosion of hatred encouraged by the Germans," he said.

Zuroff said he will push for a full investigation of the brothers by Lithuanians and prosecution, if necessary.

"The passage of time in no way diminishes their culpability," he said.

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