U.S. Takes Steps to Deport Alleged Nazi to Germany (Demjanjuk)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

US takes steps to deport alleged Nazi to Germany

By M.R. KROPKO (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
March 25, 2009 12:19 AM EDT

CLEVELAND - The U.S. government said Tuesday it is asking German officials for travel documents needed to deport accused World War II Nazi guard John Demjanjuk, who is charged in Europe with 29,000 counts of accessory to murder. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided an e-mail to The Associated Press showing that it has contacted the German government in its effort to deport Demjanjuk, once accused but ultimately cleared of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka concentration camp in occupied Poland.

The 88-year-old suburban Cleveland man was charged in Germany in March with crimes while working as a guard at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland. His son, John Demjanjuk Jr., said Tuesday that his father remains at home and is not in federal custody.

The German warrant seeks the deportation or extradition of Demjanjuk, who lives in Seven Hills and denies involvement in any deaths. Prosecutors in Munich, Germany, said Demjanjuk (pronounced dem-YAHN'-yuk) will be formally charged in front of a judge once he is extradited.

"In this capacity, he participated in the accessory to murder of at least 29,000 people of the Jewish faith," the prosecutor's office has said. It is handling the case because Demjanjuk spent time at a refugee camp in the area after the war. The suspect's family has said he is in poor health and unable to travel.

Read more: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20090324/49c868d0_3421_1334520090324305949084

[Gman]

1. They're still trying to go after this guy

this is a long-running story. Wasn't he found to have not been directly involved before? His guilt or innocence is still fuzzy to me but I know this has been going on for a long time now.

Why don't they go after war criminals with more recent histories and where the evidence is much clearer?

[saigon68]

2. They would have to go after Bush, Cheney et al

And they aren't about to do that.

An 88 year old guy who did this 65 years ago is obviously more dangerous and need to be "Locked Up" as a deterrent to other 80 year olds.

[Epiphany4z]

3. I am 43 and this story was going on when

I was a 12 or 13 I think ...I lived in cleveland at the time..it was daily news...I don't think they ever proved more than he lied on his paper work when he moved to the US...I still think he is probably who they say he is or someone close to it. He never came up with a reasonable explanation for his removed SS tat..and where exactly he was ...They had this one picture of what they said was him as a guard ..I think it was sent by the Russians.... but honestly I couldn't tell..The man has got to be older than dirt now....I can't imagine its gotten any easier to prove..but who knows...I know his son has fought really hard for him in the courts and media

[Hissyspit]

4. From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demjanjuk

On April 18, 1988, the court found Demjanjuk guilty of all charges. One week later it sentenced him to death by hanging.<6>

On July 29, 1993, five Israeli Supreme Court judges overturned the guilty verdict on appeal. Their ruling was based partly on the written statements of former guards at Treblinka that Ivan the Terrible's true surname was Marchenko, not Demjanjuk.<7> The former guards' statements were obtained after World War II by the Soviets, who prosecuted Ukrainians who assisted the Nazis as auxiliary forces during the War.

The Israeli Supreme Court's 405-page ruling read: "The main issue of the indictment sheet filed against the appellant was his identification as Ivan the Terrible, an operator of the gas chambers in the extermination camp at Treblinka ... By virtue of this gnawing ... we restrained ourselves from convicting the appellant of the horrors of Treblinka. Ivan Demjanjuk has been acquitted by us, because of doubt, of the terrible charges attributed to Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka. This was the proper course for judges who cannot examine the heart and mind, but have only what their eyes see and read." They also added "The matter is closed-but not complete, the complete truth is not the prerogative of the human judge."

The court judgment also addressed evidence against Demjanjuk that was not included in his indictment. It considered that Demjanjuk most likely served as a Nazi Wachmann (guard) in the Trawniki unit and had been posted at Sobibor and two other camps. Evidence to assist this claim included a certificate from Trawniki bearing Demjanjuk's picture and his exact personal information<7> - allegedly found in the Soviet archives - in addition to German documents that mentioned Wachmann Demjanjuk and mentioned his date and place of birth. Statements of another Wachmann (Denilchenko), both in 1949 and again in 1979, identified Demjanjuk as the Wachmann who served with him at Sobibor. Demjanjuk's Trawniki certificate also implies that he served at Sobibor, as do the German orders of March 1943 posting the Trawniki unit to this area.<7>

After Demjanjuk's acquital, the Israeli Attorney General decided to release him rather than to pursue charges of committing crimes at Sobibor. Ten petitions against the decision were made to the Supreme Court. On August 18, 1993, the court rejected the petitions on the grounds that (1) the principle of double jeopardy would be infringed, (2) that new charges would be unreasonable given the seriousness of those he had been acquitted of, (3) that conviction on the new charges would be unlikely, and (4) that Demjanjuk was extradited from the United States specifically to stand trial for offenses attributed to Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka, and not for other alternative charges.<8>

Demjanjuk was released to return to the United States. In 1993, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Demjanjuk was a victim of prosecutorial misconduct, as federal prosecutors had deliberately withheld evidence, and his US citizenship was restored.

AND

On May 20, 1999, the Justice Department filed a new civil complaint against Demjanjuk.

- snip -

On May 1, 2004, a three-judge panel of the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Demjanjuk could be again stripped of his US citizenship because the Justice Department had presented "clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence" of Demjanjuk's service in Nazi death camps. Demjanjuk vowed to appeal the ruling.

On December 28, 2005, an immigration judge ordered Demjanjuk deported to Ukraine. "Having marked Mr. Demjanjuk with blood scent, the government wants to drop him into a shark tank," his lawyer, John Broadley, said during the hearing. Chief U.S. Immigration Judge Michael Creppy ruled that there is no evidence to substantiate Demjanjuk's claim that he would be mistreated if deported.
On December 22, 2006, the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld the deportation order, stating "Simply put, the respondent's arguments regarding the likelihood of torture are speculative and not based on evidence in record".<9> On January 30, 2008, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied Demjanjuk's request for review.<10>

On June 19, 2008 Germany announced it would seek the extradition of Demjanjuk to Germany.<14> 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; however, this did not occur.<15> On November 10, 2008, German federal prosecutor Kurt Schrimm directed prosecutors to file in Munich for extradition, since Demjanjuk once lived there. On December 9, 2008, a German federal court declared that Demjanjuk could be tried for his alleged role in the Holocaust.<16> Demjanjuk was charged on March 11, 2009 with more than 29,000 counts of accessory to murder of Jewish prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp.<17>

[mackdaddy]

5. They have been after this guy in the courts for 3 decades.

from the end of the same AP article:

"Demjanjuk became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1958 and has never been convicted of war crimes in a domestic court. But a federal judge in Cleveland in 2002 stripped him of his U.S. citizenship, saying prosecutors proved in a trial to determine his citizenship status that he served the Nazi regime for more than two years during World War II as a guard.

He was accused in 1977 of concealing a past as a notorious Nazi death camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible" at Treblinka. He was extradited to Israel in 1986 and two years later was sentenced to death after being found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He appealed, and in 1993 Israel's top court ruled 5-0 that Demjanjuk was not "Ivan the Terrible." He was allowed to return to the United States.

The chief U.S. immigration judge ruled in 2005 that Demjanjuk could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine. The U.S. Supreme Court in May declined to hear an appeal of the deportation ruling."

---

I remember reading about this at the time, and never could sort through all the claims as to whether this guy was a serious war criminal or just your run of the mill Nazi soldier.

Maybe this is a warning shot for the guards and interrogators at Gitmo and the secret CIA prisons..
I wonder if this means that they may finally come after "W" and the CheneyCyborg for their war crimes in 2062?

[twitomy]

6. He volunteered to be a prison guard or face certain death

as a Russian POW. The Germans treated western POW's much better than their Russian POWs. They literally let the Russian POWs starve to death and worse.

So here you are; die as a POW or become a guard and live. Odds are he did not know the nature of
what he was going to be gaurding; i.e a camp built for extermination.

What would you choose?

[Epiphany4z]

8. if he is in fact Ivan the Terrible ....he knew what

the nature of what he was doing and witnesses say he relished it. They are not claiming he was that simple do it or die type of guy...He was remembered or a reason

[twitomy]

9. He was NOT Ivan the Terrible

He was railroaded by the Justice Department on that one. The forged ID was provided by the Soviets, who would like nothing better than to get back at a soldier who deserted them. The exonerating evidence was retreived from an OSI dumpster by Rep Traficant. The Isreali SC could even see this and let him go. So in fact he got better justice from the people who wanted to hang him, the Isrealis, than his own country. Pathetic.

[happyslug]

10. Survivors of the Camp, reported Iran the Terrible died in 1944 or 1945

Later, when Demenjuk was accused of being Ivan the Terrible these same wittinesses said he was Ivan the Terrible. What German records that survived supports the person killed in 1944 or 1945 was Ivan the Terrible, and Psychologists report survivors are known to support each other in regards to whatever their survived. This later fact is the best explanation why the Survivors changed their story for Demenjuk at his trial (i.e. one of them said He was Ivan the terrible, they all had to agree to that even if they had previously said otherwise and this occurs even if it is clearly NOT the case, it is one of the result of being a survivor of something like the Death Camps).

So what was Demenjuk? Probably a guard at one of the camps (The best bet is Solibor, which after the mass escape from that Camp, as one of the Guards who faced execution for leaving the Jews Escape, deserted from being a SS Guard). Being a Guard at Solibor would explain several of the problems with the ID, it is unlike any other ever found but appears to be real (i.e. NOT a Soviet Forgery). In fact being a Guard at Solibor is what he is being charged by the German Government.

More on Solibor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobibor_extermination_camp

More on Treblinka, where Ivan the Terrible served:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka_extermination_camp

More on Demenjuk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka_extermination_camp
http://notabug.com/kozinski/sanhedrin.pdf

[bluestateguy]

7. How long has this case been going on for?

Jeez.