Replies

Actually, they did not. The court said: "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 [new evidence indicating mistaken identity] ... 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." But: "The facts proved the appellant's participation in the extermination process. 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. The judges agreed 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 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. After Demjanjuk's acquittal, the Israeli Attorney General decided to release him rather than to pursue charges of committing crimes at Sobibor.