Demjanjuk ‘was enthusiastic Nazi’
Alleged Nazi guard John Demjanjuk was a willing participant in the Holocaust, and herded thousands of Jews to their deaths, a German court has heard.
Prosecutors said Mr Demjanjuk, 89, volunteered to join the Nazis and shared their racist ideology.
However, Mr Demjanjuk’s lawyer has called for his client’s trial to be abandoned on the grounds of poor health.
Mr Demjanjuk denies helping to murder 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor camp.
He maintains that he was a Soviet soldier who was captured by the Germans, and therefore spent most of the war in prison camps.
‘Willing participant’
But State Prosecutor Hans-Joachim Lutz told the court that Mr Demjanjuk volunteered to serve the Nazis once he had been captured.
“As a guard, he took part in all the various parts of the extermination process after the deportation trains arrived,” Mr Lutz said.
DEMJANJUK CASE TIMELINE
# 1952: Gains entry into the US, claiming he spent most of war as German POW
# 1977: First charged with war crimes, accused of being “Ivan the Terrible”
# 1981: Stripped of US citizenship
# 1986: Extradited to Israel
# 1988: Sentenced to death by Jerusalem court
# 1993: Israeli Supreme Court overturns conviction, ruling that he is not Ivan the Terrible
# 2002: Loses US citizenship after a judge said there was proof he worked at Nazi camps
# 2005: A judge rules in favour of deportation to his native Ukraine
# 2009: Germany issues arrest warrant; deported by US and charged
Standing by with a gun as the prisoners arrived, he “knowingly ensured that the victims named had no possibility of escape, but were instead put to death in gas chambers or were shot”.
Mr Lutz claims that Mr Demjanjuk could have deserted but chose to stay in the camp.
“He willingly participated in the killing of the Jews because he wanted them dead for his own racist ideological reasons”, the state prosecutor said.
During the proceedings, the defendant lay on his back or side, under a sheet, on a mobile bed, and barely moved.
Presiding Judge Ralph Alt asked if he wanted to respond to the indictment but his attorney, Ulrich Busch, said Mr Demjanjuk would make no comment.
Poor health
Mr Busch complained that Mr Demjanjuk had been forcibly deported from the US despite, he said, having a terminal illness.
Mr Busch said he was being tried for the same crimes twice, after Israel cleared him of murder at another camp.
Germany’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the current charges are different from those he was tried over two decades ago.
Doctors have asked that daily hearings be limited to two 90-minute sessions, but say Mr Demjanjuk’s vital signs are normal.
On Monday the Ukraine-born accused, who was extradited to Germany from the US in May, appeared twice in court, returning on Tuesday to hear the indictment against him.
‘Ivan the Terrible’
This is the second time John Demjanjuk has appeared in court.
Two decades ago, he was sentenced to death in Israel, convicted of being Ivan the Terrible, a notoriously sadistic guard at the Treblinka death camp.
But that ruling was overturned after new evidence showed that another Ukrainian was probably responsible.
The trial is expected to last until May and, if found guilty, Mr Demjanjuk could be sentenced to 15 years in jail.
If he is acquitted it is not clear where he will go as he has been stripped of his US citizenship.
Source: BBC News
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Short URL: http://axxanews.com/?p=2558
Posted by Axxa News Team
on Dec 1 2009. Filed under News.
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