In This Article
Subscribe to Politics Updates
Alleged Nazi Guard to Be Deported
by
findingDulcinea Staff
U.S. appeals court upholds the deportation order for alleged Nazi War criminal John Demjanjuk, the man once accused of being “Ivan the Terrible.”
30-Second Summary
The U.S. government originally accused Demjanjuk of being the Treblinka concentration camp guard known as “Ivan the Terrible.” He lost his U.S. citizenship and was extradited to Israel in 1986, where he was sentenced to death.
Evidence later indicated that Demjanjuk was not the infamous “Ivan the Terrible.” He was released from Israeli custody and sent back to the United States in 1993 with his citizenship restored.
However, Demjanjuk lost his citizenship again in 2002 when a U.S. court ruled that he was, in fact, a different Nazi war criminal.
A court ruling in 2005 ordered that Demjanjuk be deported to his native Ukraine, or if Ukraine refused to take him, Germany or Poland. Demjanjuk’s defense claimed that upon deportation he will be mistreated and tortured because of his past.
The most recent court case stemmed from Demjanjuk’s challenge to the 2005 decision of deportation. Demjanjuk’s attorney has said he will appeal the ruling to the 6th Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Demjanjuk has frequently denied both sets of accusations against him. He claims that he fought for the Soviets against the Nazis in World War II, was taken prisoner and placed in a prisoner-of-war camp for two years, and then directed to fight against the Soviets.
Evidence later indicated that Demjanjuk was not the infamous “Ivan the Terrible.” He was released from Israeli custody and sent back to the United States in 1993 with his citizenship restored.
However, Demjanjuk lost his citizenship again in 2002 when a U.S. court ruled that he was, in fact, a different Nazi war criminal.
A court ruling in 2005 ordered that Demjanjuk be deported to his native Ukraine, or if Ukraine refused to take him, Germany or Poland. Demjanjuk’s defense claimed that upon deportation he will be mistreated and tortured because of his past.
The most recent court case stemmed from Demjanjuk’s challenge to the 2005 decision of deportation. Demjanjuk’s attorney has said he will appeal the ruling to the 6th Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Demjanjuk has frequently denied both sets of accusations against him. He claims that he fought for the Soviets against the Nazis in World War II, was taken prisoner and placed in a prisoner-of-war camp for two years, and then directed to fight against the Soviets.
Headline Link: ‘Court Denies Alleged Nazi Guard's Appeal’
On Jan. 30, A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected alleged Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk's argument against deportation to Ukraine, Germany or Poland. Demjanjuk’s U.S. citizenship was “revoked in 1981, restored in 1998 and revoked again in 2002” for falsifying citizenship documents. In 1986, he was extradited to Israel and put on death row for being “Ivan the Terrible, a “sadistic” guard from the Treblinka concentration camp. In 1993 he was released by Israel after evidence indicated that he was not Ivan. He is currently charged with being a different Nazi guard.
Source: NPR
Biography: John Demjanjuk
John Demjanjuk, born Iwan Demjanjuk in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1920, and fought for the Soviet army against the Germans from 1940 until his capture in 1942. Demjanjuk claims that after spending two-years in a prisoner-of-war camp he fought against the Soviets. However, he is currently charged with working as a Nazi concentration camp guard during this period.
Source: Ohio History Central
Opinion & Analysis: How should Demjanjuk be judged?
‘Demjanjuk Has Rights’
In a May 2001 opinion, Alfred de Zayas implies that the government should take notice of the 1894 Dreyfus Affair when considering cases against alleged Nazi war criminals like Demjanjuk. During the case, evidence was withheld in order to convict a Jewish military officer. “While we all agree that Nazism was one of the most inhuman systems the world has known, where war crimes and crimes against humanity were perpetrated in an unprecedented scale, justice requires that only the guilty be punished.”
Source: Human Rights: Journal of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities, reproduced on the Web site of Focal Point Publications
‘Call Him Ivan the Terrible’
In July 2005, Fred Taub claimed in the Israeli publication Arutz Sheva that despite common understanding, Demjanjuk’s equation with “Ivan the Terrible” was never disproved in Israeli courts. Only because Israel’s legal policy requires “no doubt of guilt” for the death penalty was Demjanjuk released. Taub writes, “Demjanjuk still stands guilty in Israel of being the sadistic Nazi death camp guard Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka, but Israel had no choice but to return him to the United States under the terms of the extradition treaty and order.”
Source: Arutz Sheva
Background: Demjanjuk’s road From Israel to the present
Demjanjuk’s citizenship revoked in 2002
A February 2002 article from The New York Times reports that a judge ruled to revoke Demjanjuk’s citizenship again because Demjanjuk had “knowingly misrepresented his past when he entered the United States in 1952.” While Demjanjuk was not proven to be the infamous “Ivan the Terrible,” he was allegedly involved in Nazi concentration camp activities that contradicted the information presented on his citizenship application, according to the Times.
Source: The New York Times
‘Ivan the Not-So-Terrible’
An Aug. 02, 1993, article from Time asserts that, as the Israeli trial of Demjanjuk comes to a close, it seems unlikely he will be convicted of the charges that he was “Ivan the Terrible.” According to Time, “Nazi hunters expect any outcome to be bad news for them.” Although Demjanjuk does not appear to be “Ivan the Terrible,” says Time, new evidence suggests he may be a different Nazi war criminal. But “such a move would also raise questions of selective punishment, since Israel has never before sought to prosecute” someone of such an “ordinary” standing in the SS.
Source: Time
Most Recent Beyond The Headlines
© 2012 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
