On June 19, 2008 Germany announced it will seek the extradition of Demjanjuk to Germany to be tried to prosecute him on charges that he was involved in killing Jewish prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp. Germany’s top Holocaust crimes prosecutor, Kurt Schrimm, said that there is enough evidence to convict Demjanjuk. He said that Demjanjuk could be brought to Germany by the end of the year.
John Demjanjuk, 88, has been a resident of the United States since 1952, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1958.
In 1977, US immigration officials sought to revoke his citizenship for hiding involvement in Nazi death camps on his immigration application.
In 1981, A US district court ruled that the auto worker did indeed lie on his application, accepting proof that he was an SS guard in Treblinka and for a brief period, in Sobibor.
In 1983, Israel filed an extradition request, which was actualized in February 1986. He was tried a year leader as “Ivan the Terrible,” an infamous Treblinka guard who operated the gas chambers. During the trial, he admitted that he had his SS tattoo removed and he was identified by survivors.
On April 25, 1988, the Jerusalem District Court found him guilty, and sentenced him to death by hanging. He was placed in solitary confinement until August 1993. The Supreme Court in the appeal angered the nation with its ruling, stating that there was reasonable doubt that placed the lower court’s ruling in question, overturning it. He was released and returned to the United States.
A complicated chain of events followed and in February 1998, a US Federal District Court ruled that his citizenship should be restored. In 1999, the US Justice Department filed a civil complaint against him.
In the coming years through 2008, there were a series of hearings and appeals in the United States, resulting in the removal of his citizenship for war crimes, leading Germany to file for his extradition.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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5 Responses
BS”D
While the medine should have hanged him, at least he will have no rest whatsoever in the old age that he never should have reached.
And may he be zoiche to bring nice hot tea for his Nazi buddies who are waiting for him tiff tiff in der erd.
Total insanity…How could Israel have ever allowed him out…unless as a dead body in a box?
Give him to Germany maybe… just maybe they will do the right thing and give him the proper punishment he deserves.
I am really glad that he did not receive the punishment he deserved in this world. Hashem probably wants to give him his full just “reward” in the next world.
thanks to ex judge gaberial bache..a holacost survivor him self
Demjanjuk wasn’t Ivan the Terrible. That person was a guard at Treblinka, and it’s been clearly proven that Demjanjuk was at Sobibor. Now he’s being charged for his crimes there, as well he should be, but don’t call him ItT; we know for certain that he wasn’t. (If it were to turn out that he really was ItT, then it would follow that he was at Treblinka and not at Sobibor, and can’t be guilty of the current charges! Fortunately, the evidence is solid, which is why his conviction was reversed.)
#2: Israel had to let him go, because he was extradited under false pretenses. The evidence that he was a guard at Treblinka was always unreliable, because it was provided by the KGB; only a fool would have trusted it. The blackest mark against him was that the defense he offered was very weak; of course now we know why he never offered a proper defense: his real alibi was that he couldn’t have been killing Jews at Treblinka because at that moment he was killing Jews at Sobibor, but he could hardly say that! Once it was proven that he was innocent of the charge against him, Israel had to return him to the USA. It could not lay a new charge against him without starting new proceedings.