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Ivan the Terrible jcaut11Ei1 ohn Demjanjuk was just a retired mechanic to his neighbors in

Cleveland Ohio Then a report identified him as "Ivan the Terrible,

Ja sadistic Nazi death camp guard. The accusation, which hinged on

identification by who last saw Demjanjuk 40 years

earlier, was effectively a death sentence on the 55-year-old Ukrainian

FREE AT LAST? A The news of his release is broken to Demjon]uk, still in his Israeliprison clothes, in 1990. But, in 2002, he was once more stripped of his US T 1i E citizenship-again accused of war crimes.

In the courtroom the crowd wheelchair, John Demjanjuk cried out, for acts of unspeakable cruelty, and had chanted "Death! Death! Death!" as the "I am innocent!" personally operated the machinery of death. judge read our the verdict. "It is as if John Demjanjuk had emigrated to the Treblinka still existed," he said. "Still Ivan Gas chamber guard United States in 1951, settling in the Terrible poisons and stabs, although The crimes of which he was accused took , Ohio, and working in the his face has turned into an old man's face. place during World War II at Treblinka, motor industry. He lived inconspicuously He still cuts off breasts, slits bellies, an in Poland. There, as and apparently blamelessly until 1975, shoots youths, and drills into the living many as 900,000 Jews were gassed under when his name appeared on a list of flesh. In the light of the above, we sign the supervision of hundreds of Ukrainian suspected Nazi war criminals compiled a punishment of death." From his guards. One, nicknamed "Ivan the by the , Terrible" by camp inmates, was notorious The US Justice Department began 4.' proceedings to strip Demjanjuk of his citizenship so that he could be extradited - to for trial. The Immigration and TrZ Service (INS) studied Demjanjuk's application for citizenship, and found that he had claimed to be "a 1 farmer in Poland in a settlement called Sobibor" during the war. Soviet records revealed that Demjanjuk had in fact worked as a guard at a death camp in Sobibor.

The Nazi hunters investigate The INS then supplied Israeli police with (t' photographs of Demjanjuk taken from his immigration files. The Israeli police were 4't" S1

4 These starving prisoners escaped death at a Nazi concentration camp, but more than 15 million others died at Nazi extermination and concentration comps. Though acquitted of being lyon the Terrible of Treblinko, Dem]onluk is still o suspect.

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investigating another war crime suspect though not Treblinka. The defense / who had worked at Treblinka, and they questioned the authenticity of the showed mugshot albums, which included cert care and cast doubt on the

' of . . ' pictures both men, to Treblinka and identification witnesses, but, ,-

these Sobibor survivors. However, despite the Demjanjuk's arguments, / picture, and that of the other accused court found Demjanjuk guilty. . man, . . were twice the size of the "fillers" on He immediately appealed and, ., , . the page; they were brighter and clearer, when the appeal was heard in too. Several survivors identified Demjanjuk 1990, Demjanjuk was able to -'i as Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka. Then, at present witness statements a Treblinka survivors' reunion, witnesses gathered in the Soviet "' . . who had identified Ivan met with Union, that identified 3 ° " . _" . / already .. , .li,A "C' . fellow survivors, some of whom went on another man Ivan . to make the same identification. In spite Marchenko, as Ivan the / " of these irregularities, other survivors failed Terrible. Demjanjuk's sentence . to identify Ivan. And there was no hard was quashed and he returned to the evidence to suggest that Demjanjuk had United States a free man. The case of John ever served at Treblinka. Nevertheless, the Demjanjuk graphically illustrates the THE '" INS concluded that he had been positively hazards of identification evidence, A identified and, in CERTIFICATE 1981, stripped him of especially when the passage of time has Demjanjuk's 55 record card showed that he his citizenship. In 1986 he was flown to clouded witnesses' memories and changed had attended a training camp far death Israel to stand trial. the physical appearance of the suspect. camp guards, Trawniki. Dem]anjuk's lawyers insisted that the card had been forged by On trial for his life the KGB (the Soviet secret police) in order to frame their client. 141 In the trial that began the following year, the identification evidence of the survivors was crucial to the prosecution. They a also produced a certificate (see right) that appeared to prove that Demjanjuk had volunteered as a member of the Nazi SS, and had gassed Jews at Sobibor-

IN COURT IN JERUSALEM

Demjanjuk sits between guards during the trial. He often had T!~Iri difficulty understanding the U proceedings: his Ukrainian translator was also a witness

for the prosecution.