Suspected Nazi guard John Demjanjuk to stand trial for murder of 29,000 Jews

[Purple Aki]

Suspected Nazi guard John Demjanjuk to stand trial for murder of 29,000 Jews

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6094255.ece

One of the world’s most wanted war crimes suspects was facing deportation to Germany last night to stand trial for the murder of 29,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp.

Six US agents eased John Demjanjuk, 89, down the steps of his home in Cleveland, Ohio, in a wheelchair before taking him to a waiting van. Relatives gathered on the front porch, crying and holding each other for support.

Three decades ago former concentration camp inmates identified Mr Demjanjuk as a sadistic guard, Ivan the Terrible, who operated the gas chambers at Treblinka. Mr Demjanjuk was jailed but subsequently freed in Israel after doubts were raised about his identity.

The US authorities have been keen to deport him for years, but after what happened in Israel, no country would take him in. Now Germany is prepared to put him on trial. German prosecutors allege that he was an accessory to mass murder at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland during the Second World War.


Times Archive, 1985: Israel hails extradition of 'Ivan the Terrible'
John Demjanuk may appeal to a higher court against the ruling to extradite him to Israel for trial

Nazi guard loses U S citizenship
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They might have to wait a while longer, however. As US immigration officials were taking Mr Demjanjuk to the airport, an appeals court in Ohio granted a stay of the deportation order. His family had argued that he was too ill to travel.

If the latest in a long line of legal hitches is resolved, Mr Demjanjuk will be flown to Munich. He will be arrested on arrival and brought before a judge for an initial hearing. That judge will decide where the retired car factory worker will be held, and what medical tests he should undergo.

Mr Demjanjuk first caught the eye of Nazi-hunters during a 1977 US Justice Department investigation. He was convicted by the Israeli court in 1988 and sentenced to death, before that verdict was overturned five years later. At that point Mr Demjanjuk, who was born in Ukraine and changed his name from Ivan to John when he moved to the US in 1952, returned to his family life in the suburbs of Cleveland. He has since been stripped of his US citizenship.

He remained No 2 on the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s most wanted list behind Aribert Heim, who, according to a recent investigation, might have died in Egypt in 1992.

Last month prosecutors in Munich filed charges against him on more than 29,000 counts of being an accessory to murder during 1943.

Prosecutors said that most of those who died were women, children and the elderly. The oldest victim during the months that Mr Demjanjuk allegedly worked at Sobibor was 99; the youngest were babies. The US Office for Special Investigations said that the camp was “as close an approximation of Hell as has ever been created on this planet”.

Mr Demjanjuk has always maintained his innocence, claiming that he fought in the Red Army before being taken prisoner by the Nazis in 1942. His family have argued that deportation would amount to torture. His son, John Demjanjuk Jr, told The Times last night: “He’s bed-ridden, he’s extremely weak. He’s in a lot of pain.”

He said that his father had kidney disease. “There is zero chance of him being able to stand trial. He will live out his days in a German hospital.”

John Broadley, Mr Demjanjuk’s American lawyer, said after the appeals court ruling: “They tried to slip him out of the country before the court could act and thank God the American courts caught them at it. I did not believe I would ever see in this country seven or eight guys going after an 89-year-old man.”

Nazis on the run

— Konrad Kalejs was suspected of running a Nazi death camp in Latvia. He fled the US and Canada when accused of war crimes. In Australia, he was given the job of vetting migrants from Eastern Europe. He died in Melbourne in 2001 while fighting extradition

— Erich Priebke, a high-ranking SS official who was held responsible for a wartime massacre in Rome, made the mistake of giving a television interview in Argentina in 1994, leading to his arrest, extradition and sentencing to life imprisonment

— In Scotland the most high-profile case was that of Anton Gecas, who owned an Edinburgh guest-house, but was wanted for his part in the execution of 34,000 Jews, Soviet citizens and PoWs while serving with the 12th Lithuanian Police Battalion. Although Scotland’s then justice minister, Jim Wallace, authorised the start of extradition proceedings, Gecas was deemed too ill to face trial and died in Edinburgh in 2001, aged 85

— Justice finally caught up with 93-year-old Friedrich Engel in July 2002 when a Hamburg court sentenced the former Nazi SS officer known as the “Butcher of Genoa” to seven years’ imprisonment for the mass murder of Italian civilians 58 years ago. Engel, a former SS major, had escaped justice for more than half a century because of legal blunders and apparent indifference on the part of the authorities. Until 2001 the frail pensioner had been living quietly in a Hamburg suburb

"But, I'm innocent! The holocaust never happened; just ask getbig.com."

[Nordic Superman]

93 years old? As if he cares, he's lived longer than I can hope / want to live.

[George Whorewell]

This trial shouldn't go forward until the Bush Administration pays for its crimes!

[BM OUT]

The Jews have been trying to get this man for twenty years.They first accused him of being IVAN THE TERRIBLE,they actually convicted him of that and it was overturned by the ISREALI SUPREME court.There is ZERO proof this man had ANYTHING to do with death camps.However,now,if a jew, or group of jews, says "there is the man" your finnished.No proof needed,just the word of good old jews.

[drkaje]

I swear people think the Holocaust happened yesterday.

[24KT]

This trial shouldn't go forward until the Bush Administration pays for its crimes!

I wonder how many Americans will share the same fate in years to come.
They did as they were told, served their countries like good little civvies & soldiers, participating in torture.
Who knows, ...one day Iraqi's & Afghans might be hunting Americans with the same tenacity the nazi hunters have been demonstrating 40, 50 years later? Don't think the Bush admins decision to shred records and destroy evidence will safeguard them, ...it might even make their situations that much more precarious.

[tonymctones]

saw a full pic of that one in this mornings news paper...His grand daughter is actually pretty damn hot

[George Whorewell]

LOL Jag. Put the crackpipe down. Take a deep breath. Ok.... here's the response 

[drkaje]

I wonder how many Americans will share the same fate in years to come.
They did as they were told, served their countries like good little civvies & soldiers, participating in torture.
Who knows, ...one day Iraqi's & Afghans might be hunting Americans with the same tenacity the nazi hunters have been demonstrating 40, 50 years later? Don't think the Bush admins decision to shred records and destroy evidence will safeguard them, ...it might even make their situations that much more precarious.

History is written by the victors.

[George Whorewell]

RotflLLLLll I have to respond again to that moronic post. I really dont think a bunch of neanderthals living in a cave somewhere in a lawless area along the afghan border that were waterboarded are going to be on the hunt for anything in 50 years.

[Deicide]

I wonder how many Americans will share the same fate in years to come.
They did as they were told, served their countries like good little civvies & soldiers, participating in torture.
Who knows, ...one day Iraqi's & Afghans might be hunting Americans with the same tenacity the nazi hunters have been demonstrating 40, 50 years later? Don't think the Bush admins decision to shred records and destroy evidence will safeguard them, ...it might even make their situations that much more precarious.

Poor analogy. American imperialism is not the manifestation of a systemtic attempt to exterminate various sub-groups of people; it was however the case with the Nazis.

[Hugo Chavez]

93 years old? As if he cares, he's lived longer than I can hope / want to live.

amazing how you two always post in the same thread.

[SAMSON123]

I wonder how many Americans will share the same fate in years to come.
They did as they were told, served their countries like good little civvies & soldiers, participating in torture.
Who knows, ...one day Iraqi's & Afghans might be hunting Americans with the same tenacity the nazi hunters have been demonstrating 40, 50 years later? Don't think the Bush admins decision to shred records and destroy evidence will safeguard them, ...it might even make their situations that much more precarious.

Well JAG its been hundreds of years since the slaughter of MILLIONS of Native Peoples in america and MILLIONS more of america's African American population...exactly when does this "SHARE THE SAME FATE" thing kick in???

And in the case of what happened in america there is NO DOUBT about its occurance, when, where, how and by whom is all known....

[24KT]

RotflLLLLll I have to respond again to that moronic post. I really dont think a bunch of neanderthals living in a cave somewhere in a lawless area along the afghan border that were waterboarded are going to be on the hunt for anything in 50 years.

Let's hope that. 

[24KT]

Poor analogy. American imperialism is not the manifestation of a systemtic attempt to exterminate various sub-groups of people; it was however the case with the Nazis.

{LOL} You haven't read very many of Nordic's posts have you? 

[Nordic Superman]

amazing how you two always post in the same thread.

And the same could be you and SAMSON123HOMO.

The amount of threads where you post exclusively of each other is becoming very rare... and the amount of times you back each other up is worrying

Hugo, at what point did you realize you hated your country and decided to create a gimmick on Getbig to air your frustration?

[amc1980]

amazing how you two always post in the same thread.

I've noticed that too. What a cunt!

[Nordic Superman]

I've noticed that too. What a cunt!

Ha ha, let's see if Hugo is intelligent enough to pick up on what you've done here...

[Purple Aki]

I've noticed that too. What a cunt!

 

[Nordic Superman]

Hi "myself".

[Fury]

RotflLLLLll I have to respond again to that moronic post. I really dont think a bunch of neanderthals living in a cave somewhere in a lawless area along the afghan border that were waterboarded are going to be on the hunt for anything in 50 years.

Those Muslim dirtbags will be looking for their next meal when the rest of the world gets off and the supplies of it run out.

[SAMSON123]

And the same could be you and SAMSON123HOMO.

The amount of threads where you post exclusively of each other is becoming very rare... and the amount of times you back each other up is worrying

Hugo, at what point did you realize you hated your country and decided to create a gimmick on Getbig to air your frustration?

That's not my name...and who is HUGO?

[shootfighter1]

Jag, though I agree the US has overstepped bounds in Iraq, comparing the US actions to Nazi's exterminating Jews is a bad comparison.

If this guy wasn't convicted in Israeli courts when he was tried, why is this being brought up again?

[SAMSON123]

Jag, though I agree the US has overstepped bounds in Iraq, comparing the US actions to Nazi's exterminating Jews is a bad comparison.

If this guy wasn't convicted in Israeli courts when he was tried, why is this being brought up again?

Get off this JEW CRAP.... It is amazing how the american brainwashing has made FOOLS of the masses. 1.5 MILLION Iraqis killed, 5 MILLION sent into refugee status, complete destruction of Iraq, looting of all historical and anitiquities artifacts, stealing of currency, destruction of infrastructure, polluting of water, poisoning of land with Depleted Uranium, unexploded bombs everywhere, birth defects and cancers exploding everywhere in Iraq where there was NONE before the americans came.....WHAT ARE YOU A FOOL???

the so called Jew had it good compared to these people...the Iraqis land is destroyed FOREVER and the effects wil be there for thousands of generations. They are reduiced down to less than peasants and have no where to turn for help or relief. Where as your so clled jew ran off to america, South America, Africa, Middle East and the SOuth Pacific avoiding the war. Add to this they have been receiving REPERATIONS for the supposed theft of things they claimed Hitler took form them (PROVE IT). The case between the jew and the Iraqi is as different as day and night...go sing that pathetic song some where else

[shootfighter1]

I take it your not a big fan of the Jews then?