John Demjanjuk | |
|---|---|
Іван Дем'янюк | |
 Demjanjuk in his Trawniki card, 1940s | |
| Born | Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk 3 April 1920 |
| Died | 17 March 2012 (aged 91) Bad Feilnbach, Germany |
| Citizenship |
|
| Occupation | Autoworker |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Spouse | Vera Kowlowa[1] |
| Children | 3 |
| Conviction(s) | Israel (overturned): Germany (not final):
|
| Criminal penalty | Israel:
|
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
|
| Service | |
John Demjanjuk (born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk;[a] 3 April 1920 – 17 March 2012) was a Trawniki man and Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, Majdanek, and Flossenbürg.[2] Demjanjuk became the center of global media attention in the 1980s, when he was tried and convicted in Israel after being misidentified as "Ivan the Terrible", a notoriously cruel watchman at Treblinka extermination camp. In 1993 the verdict was overturned. Shortly before his death, he was tried and convicted in the Federal Republic of Germany as an accessory to the 28,060 murders that occurred during his service at Sobibor.
Born in Soviet Ukraine, Demjanjuk survived the Holodomor as a child and was conscripted into the Red Army in 1940. He fought in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Germans in spring 1942. He was recruited by the Germans and trained at Trawniki concentration camp, going on to serve at Sobibor extermination camp and at least two concentration camps. After the war he married a woman he met in a West German displaced persons camp, and emigrated with her and their daughter to the United States.[3] They settled in Seven Hills, Ohio, where he worked in an auto factory and raised three children. Demjanjuk became a US citizen in 1958.
In 1977, Demjanjuk was accused of having been a Trawniki man. Based on eyewitness testimony by Holocaust survivors in Israel, he was misidentified as the notorious Ivan the Terrible from Treblinka.[4] Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel in 1986 for trial.[5] In 1988, Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to death. He maintained his innocence, claiming that it was a case of mistaken identity. In 1993 the verdict was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court, based on new evidence that cast reasonable doubt over his identity as Ivan the Terrible.[6] Although the judges agreed that there was sufficient evidence to show that Demjanjuk had served at Sobibor, Israel declined to prosecute. In September 1993 Demjanjuk was allowed to return to Ohio. In 1999, US prosecutors again sought to deport Demjanjuk for having been a concentration camp guard, and his citizenship was revoked in 2002.[3] In 2009, Germany requested his extradition for over 27,900 counts of acting as an accessory to murder: one for each person killed at Sobibor during the time when he was alleged to have served there as a guard.[7] He was deported from the US to Germany in that same year.[8][9] In 2011, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.
According to legal scholar Lawrence Douglas, in spite of serious missteps along the way, the German verdict brought the case "to a worthy and just conclusion."[10][page needed] After the conviction, Demjanjuk was released pending appeal. He lived at a German nursing home in Bad Feilnbach,[11] where he died in 2012.[12] Having died before a final judgment on his appeal could be issued, under German law, Demjanjuk remains technically innocent.[13] In 2020, a photograph album by Sobibor guard Johann Niemann was made public; some historians have suggested that a guard who appears in two photos may have been Demjanjuk.
- ^ "Seven Hills' John Demjanjuk, convicted Nazi guard, dies in Bavaria at 91". Cleveland.com. 17 March 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
- ^ Douglas 2016, p. 124. "As the Sydnor/Huebner report had made clear, the evidence of Demjanjuk's service at Majdanek and Flossenbürg was actually more detailed than the material about his time at Sobibor. This is not to suggest that Demjanjuk's time at Sobibor can be subject to reasonable doubt; Demjanjuk's service as a Sobibor Wachmann remains irrefutable, particularly when triangulated with the evidence of his service at Majdanek and Flossenbürg. The point is that the Majdanek and Flossenbürg deployments are better documented, as they include details such as Demjanjuk's punishment for indulging his appetite for "salt and onions" during a typhus lockdown at Majdanek, and the serial numbers of his rifle and bayonet at Flossenbürg."
- ^ a b Sturcke, James (12 May 2009). "Timeline: John Demjanjuk". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
- ^ Fyler, Boaz (17 March 2012). "Israeli judge: Demjanjuk was 'Ivan the Terrible'". Ynetnews Magazine. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
- ^ Fung, Annie. "The Extradition of John Demjanjuk as "Ivan the terrible"". NYLS Journal of International and Comparative Law. 14 (2): 471–502. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
- ^ Hedges, Chris (12 August 1993). "Israel recommends that Demjanjuk be released". The New York Times.
- ^ Fischer, Sebastian; Neumann, Conny; Meyer, Cordula (9 December 2009). "Demjanjuk Lands in Munich". Der Spiegel. Munich and Cleveland. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
- ^ "Demjanjuk en route to Germany". United Press International. 11 May 2009.
- ^ Kulish, Nicholas (12 May 2009). "Accused Nazi arrives in Munich". The New York Times.
- ^ Douglas 2016.
- ^ Ewing, Jack; Cowell, Alan (13 May 2011). "Demjanjuk taken to nursing home". The New York Times.
- ^ McFadden, Robert (17 March 2012). "John Demjanjuk, 91, dogged by charges of atrocities as Nazi camp guard, dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
- ^ Aderet, Ofer. "Convicted Nazi Criminal Demjanjuk Deemed Innocent in Germany Over Technicality". Haaretz. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
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