I know this has been going on a long time, but I am not entirely sympathetic to this guy.
HOWEVER, the concept of guilt by association is one helluva slippery slope.
I hope it never shows its face in this country.
The krauts are going a little overboard here.
Consider that he couldn’t return to the Soviet Union, because he was already marked for death there for getting captured by the Nazis. If you were a Ukrainian POW, your only choices were to “volunteer” for guard duty, or get shot.
There is no evidence he killed even one person as a guard, or signed any orders authorizing any killings.
And why now does Germany care so much for going after war criminals, and a non-German at that? Where were they when they were trying to find Eichmann and Mengele?
I am not sure what I think, but it is a bit cautious. My FIL was autoworker, my in-laws were all German immigrants...not one except for my husband was born here. There is a very active German Culture here in Cleveland. Many of them are very staunch Americans, while celebrating their German cultural roots. My viewpoint is understandably biased in this matter.
“I hope it never shows its (guilt by association) face in this country.”
Too late. Demjanjuk was deported from the US on the basis if accusations that would not stand the light of day were the topic bank robbery or fraud. But if you accuse someone of being a death camp guard it’s like accusing someone of witchcraft - they’re guilty if they admit it and guilty if they don’t.