And in the hallway between those courtrooms, a gaggle of television cameras waited for the verdict in the trial of a teenager accused of perpetrating an act of random violence that had horrified the nation. Away from the hysterical headlines in its newspapers — the chaos surrounding the bailout of the euro, the haplessness of Angela Merkel's governing coalition in Berlin — Germany is a society that shows signs of both long-term stability and burgeoning, monumental changes.
It is a country that since the second World War has forged for itself a resilient identity centered on economic success and taking responsibility for its historical crimes. In more recent years it has struggled to adapt to an era of globalization that both increased inequality and introduced new immigrants. It's the former identity that is evident in the Demjanjuk case, likely the final international trial prosecuting Nazi-era crimes.
The horrifying scale of his alleged crimes is tempered by the mundane realities of German jurisprudence. For more than six months, on the maximum of three days per week that the ailing Demjanjuk has been determined fit to attend trial, he is wheeled into the courtroom, transferred to his mattress and covered in blankets. He lies there while the lead judge makes procedural announcements or forensics witnesses give testimony in laborious detail.
The only indications that Demjanjuk is not asleep are his occasional shifts in position, as he lifts his hands to rest them on his belly. Regardless of whether he's awake, a young Ukrainian translates every single word spoken in the courtroom.
Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian who allegedly volunteered to work at the Sobibor death camp, doesn't speak any German. The case of John Demjanjuk born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demianiuk captured global audiences first in the late '80s, during his first trial in Israel, and again in the s, when he was brought before judges in Germany.
Demjanjuk always claimed that he had been a Ukrainian prisoner of war in Germany and Poland, and after the war had settled in America with his family. He argued that his links to Nazi activity in the camps were a case of mistaken identity.
He was convicted in and sentenced to death, when three judges ruled that he was 'Ivan the Terrible' a notorious gas-chamber guard of Treblinka, who abused and maimed those at the camp as they entered. But this decision was later overturned due to the emergence of new documents that raised reasonable doubt. Many still have questions as to the evidence that was presented in Demjanjuk's case.
It must also be noted, as it was in The Devil Next Door , that he was positively identified by a number of survivors who were actually there and witnessed Ivan's actions. The true identity of Ivan the Terrible has never conclusively been discovered. Demjanjuk's US citizenship was reinstated and he returned to the States, where he went back to living his family life.
Eli Rosenbaum was the acting Director of the United States Office of Special Investigations, which was primarily responsible for identifying and deporting Nazi war criminals. He inherited the case when Demjanjuk returned to the country.
Rosenbaum was also of the belief that there was "absolutely no question" that the widely debated ID card was authentic. Rosenbaum told filmmakers that the US had a "moral obligation to the survivors" to bring him to justice for these war crimes. Former Nazi death-camp guard John Demjanjuk may face a war crimes trial in Germany after officials said new evidence would be used to charge him.
On Tuesday, state prosecutors announced plans to extradite the year-old from the United States and prove he was responsible for the deaths of 29, Jews at the Sobibor camp in Poland.
Prosecutors had maintained that Demjanjuk was one of the Trawniki men — Central and Eastern European collaborators recruited from Nazi-run camps for Soviet prisoners of war — and served at the Sobibor, Majdanek and Flossenburg camps.
After an month trial, Demjanjuk was convicted by a court in Munich in of being an accessory to the murder of about 28, Jews at Sobibor. He had appealed the conviction. He died in at the age of 91 in a nursing home in Germany, insisting that he was innocent.
He said he had been drafted into the Soviet army in and been a Ukrainian prisoner of war in Germany and Poland before immigrating to the United States after the war, changing his name from Ivan to John and settling in Seven Hills, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.
There, he raised a family and lived an unremarkable life until , when he found himself on a list of American citizens believed to have once been Nazi guards. Very little is known about it because there were so few survivors and hardly any images until now. Demjanjuk was stripped of his U. Demjanjuk returned to the United States, and his citizenship was restored in But the following year, U.
His citizenship was once again revoked, in , and he was deported in to Germany, where he was charged with being an accessory to the murder of about 28, Jews at Sobibor. He was convicted in and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released pending the outcome of his appeal before his death the next year.
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