There he was convicted of treason and sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. It became a Philadelphia Story when the Lithuanian community here. outraged by the Coast Guards refusal of sanctuary. took up Kudirkas cause. A militant leader in the struggle to help the seaman was a Glenside housewife. Ausra Zerr. She is vice president of the national executive committee of the LithuanianAmerican Community of the USA. Inc.. which has its headquarters in this city. She is a refugee from Communistcontrolled Lithuania. At the age of 12 she had been smuggled out of the country on a coal cargo ship. So she has an ingrown sympathy for human beings seeking freedom.