Nazi Death Camp Guard Will be Tried: Prosecutor

Reuters ^ | 2/25/09 | Erik Kirschbaum

[nickcarraway]

A German prosecutor rejected criticism on Wednesday that suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk is not being brought to trial fast enough before the 88-year-old dies.

Munich state prosecutor Anton Winkler said his office has been examining evidence against Demjanjuk since December 30 and hopes to have him extradited from the United States for a trial in Germany as soon as possible -- possibly in the next month.

"We're working as fast as possible and assume Demjanjuk will be brought to trail here," Winkler told Reuters. "As soon as we have finished preparing the charges, the extradition process will move forward."

In November, Germany's chief Nazi war crimes investigator in Ludwigsburg, Kurt Schrimm, asked prosecutors in Munich, where Demjanjuk once lived before he emigrated to the United States, to charge him with involvement in the murder of 29,000 Jews.

Schrimm said his office had evidence that Demjanjuk had been a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland and personally led Jews to the gas chambers there in 1943. Last week Schrimm criticized the Munich prosecutors for not moving faster.

"The accusation is unfair," Winkler said, adding that a final report should be ready in about three weeks.

Winkler said charges could be raised at that point and a request for his extradition made to the Berlin government.

Efraim Zuroff, a Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and director of its Jerusalem office, said time was running out to prosecute Demjanjuk, second on its list of top war criminals.

"The evidence has all been checked time and again," Zuroff said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.

"It's strange to claim a month's delay is needed. The biggest problem prosecuting war crimes all over the world now is a lack of political will."

[Sarajevo]

If he is sentenced, it would BECAUSE he was found guilty.

How many damn times does he have to go on trial before someone finally gets it through their thick skulls that he may ACTUALLY be innocent of the charges?

Give it a break!

[umbra43]

If he murdered people he should be put to death. Its that simple. Is the evidence really there that he was a guard???

[sofaman]

or he may not be innocent. Twice in US courts, he was found to have lied on his citizenship application. Twice on the merits of the evidence, he was stripped of his US citizenship.

The Weisenthal Center seems to believe that the evidence is overwhelming.

The Israeli Supreme Court, which is notoriously left leaning, disagreed and Demjanjuk was deported to Germany.

So far the count (or Court) is 1 ball & 2 strikes.

[RedMonqey]

Besides, he was evidently known as "Ivan the Terrible", if it was in fact him.

He was cleared of those charges of being "Ivan Grozny" or "Ivan the Terrible" of Treblinka, by none other than the state of Israel. Seems the Soviets were caught tampering with the evidence.

However it seems he was a guard at another camp, which brings up the question again. Is being a guard at a concentration camp enough to be charged with.... what?

The Germans seem to think he alone is responsible for the he was responsible for killing 29,000 Jewish prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp.

Really? I'd that puts the likes of Jeffery Dalmer and Ted Bundy to shame.

So are the Germans right and he deserves.... what?

Which brings us back to the American comparison.

Excuse me. I would hardly equate a guard in Nazi Death Camp with one of our soldiers.

But of course We are Americans.

But ask a jury of, say, the average Arab who thinks Americans are criminals anyway. Just as they have been fed nothing but anti American images all their life so has our media has spoon-fed us into believing anyone associated with the Holocaust, down to the lowly camp guard, deserves the death penalty for doing nothing more than standing in a rickety guard tower on cold snowy nights.

Oversimplification? Absolutely!! But so is convicting a man on flimsy evidence.

Demjanjuk's no saint but in a country where murderers and terrorists are teaching at our best universities, by comparison, he is small potatoes indeed.

[RedMonqey]

....why don’t I hear this kind of emotional charge against the other leftists of the world that turned their backs or contributed to the 150-200 million or so victims of communism?

A question right out of my mouth and one you will never heard a peep out of any liberal.

My theory?

They have successfully planted the idea of Fascism as extreme right wing capitalism. (it's not) in order to discredit western democratic capitalism.

Communism/Socialism/Fascism are more or less the same creature but the Leftist media must portray the victims of Fascism (i.e,Capitalism) as the greater tragedy. Feint Ignorance to the greater body count by Communism aids in the coverup of the great travesty of Socialism in all it’s forms while allowing hope for the future creation of the Perfected Socialist State .

A masturbatory fantasy for the Leftist.

[Thorin]

A cheap and tawdry political stunt by a German prosecutor looking for fame.

[DarkWaters]

Your probably right on the money. God forbid they get a chance to do this to the whole world. The death toll will be in the billions the next time around.

[RedMonqey]

And with no America as an “Arensal of Democracy” to pull the world’s chestnuts outta the fire, billions would be about right.