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Defender of Nazis

Buchanan is the most prominent defender of accused Nazis in America. The most famous case is that of John Demanjuk, who was accused of being an infamous death camp guard named Ivan the Terrible. Buchanan proclaimed his innocence for years, against ample criticism, and felt vindicated when an Israeli court declared there was not enough evidence to convict Demanjuk of being Ivan.

Buchanan continues to declare that Demanjuk has been proved "innocent". Actually, a key piece of evidence (from German documents) that exonerated him as Ivan showed Demanjuk to be a willing guard at Sobibor, another extermination camp where 250,000 died. Even the National Review, while generally defending Demanjuk and Buchanan's support for him, concedes that "Demanjuk was probably guilty of being a lesser accomplice in the Nazi machinery of genocide. That is a fair summary of the Israeli court's findings."

More to the point, Demanjuk is only one of several accused Nazis Buchanan has defended in one way or another. These include Karl Linnas (Buchanan personally appealed to Ed Meese, then Attorney General, to block his deportation to the Soviet Union); Klaus Barbie (Buchanan did not oppose his trial, but argued the US should not have apologized to France for sheltering Barbie after WWII); Arthur Rudolph, a rocket scientist involved in slave labor and severe punishments at a German rocket factory (Buchanan argued his confession was a "lie" while acknowledging he was a "nominal member of the Nazi party and of the SA until 1934"); and Frank Walus (of all the accused, the one most likely innocent.)

One of the most striking examples is Kurt Waldheim, the disgraced former UN leader. Buchanan repeatedly attacked him during his tenure, but once his Nazi past came out, Pat complained that "the ostracism of President Waldheim [has] an aspect of moral bullying and the singular stench of selective indignation." He also rationalized that "like others in Hitler's army, Lt. Waldheim looked the other way."

In each of these cases, Buchanan found a factual reason to defend the accused, an appeal to justice. But put together, it is striking how often he rushes to the defense of accused Nazis. He has also attacked the US Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation (which pursues war criminals) more generally:

"You've got a great atrocity that occurred 35, 45 years ago.... Why... put millions of dollars [into] investigating that?"

Holocaust Revisionism

Perhaps the single most extreme and scary thing Buchanan has done is to question whether the Holocaust was really that bad. In the course of defending Demanjuk, he argued that charges of complicity in mass murder using Treblinka's gas chambers were false -- because the gas chambers didn't really work.

In his March 17, 1990 column, he wrote that diesel engines, the exhaust from which was used in the Treblinka gas chambers, "do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody. ... Demanjuk's weapon of mass murder cannot kill."

His evidence was a 1988 accident where a train stalled in a tunnel, with the engine running for a few minutes. No one died. Of course, the train operator was not trying to kill anyone. Apparently, properly tuned diesels do not produce much carbon monoxide, but they can be (and were) tweaked to produce deadlier exhaust. Many people actually think that in the gas chambers, the exhaust was used to suffocate, not poison. In a crowded, sealed chamber this would happen much more quickly.

As Muravchik points out in the Commentary article, "diesel exhaust fumes were used not only at Treblinka but also at Chelmno, Sobibor, and Belzec, and were moreover employed extensively by the Nazi killing squads inside the USSR." Denying that diesel exhaust can kill means that much of the generally accepted history of the Holocaust must be false.

Buchanan has refused to discuss his statements on the record, but told reporter Jacob Weisberg of a "bolder debunking claim (concerning the gas chambers) than he is willing to endorse in print." When Weisberg asked him where he got the anecdote about the stalled train, he would say only "Somebody gave it to me." All evidence points to Buchanan getting this from Holocaust Revisionist groups. Treblinka is often singled out by these extremists, because the gas chamber was destroyed, and most witnesses murdered, before Allied troops arrived at the end of the war.

A well-researched article by Jamie McCarthy persuasively identifies Buchanan's source as the July 1988 issue of the German American Information and Education Association, a revisionist group.That issue goes on to say "the German people were 'holocausted' after WW II, especially by the Bolsheviks, originally a Jewish/Zionist movement."

In his Ivan the Terrible column, Buchanan also tried to explain away death camp eyewitnesses by saying "Since the war, 1,600 medical papers have been written on 'The Psychological and Medical Effects of the Concentration Camps on Holocaust Survivors.' This so-called 'Holocaust Survivor syndrome involves 'group fantasies of martyrdom and heroics.' "

To this day - the last week of February 1996 to be exact - Buchanan still defends his Demanjuk columns as "the best journalism I ever did."

And he contests several other generally accepted aspects of German history. (He is himself entirely German, on his mother's side, and half Irish on his father's.) Buchanan argued that the British started the terror-bombing in WWII (causing Germans to retaliate). He wrote Reagan's infamous description of the German soldiers buried in Bitburg, Germany (including SS members) as "victims of the war". He wrote a column in 1990 publicizing "Other Losses", a book alleging that one million German POWs died in American camps at the end of WW2, due to General Eisenhower's supposedly fanatical hatred of Germans. He argued Britain started WWI and pulled us into a fight with Germany through "lying British propaganda."

And during the reunification of Germany in 1989, many neighboring countries pressured Germany to accept its postwar borders and give up claims to land it lost at the end of WW2. Buchanan applauded Helmut Kohl as a "patriot" for his "reluctance to sign away all rights to the lost German territories."

Defender of Nazis sources

"Buchanan on Trial", Joshua Muravchik (letter), National Review, November 29, 1993 p2

"The Demanjuk fallout" (editorial response to above letter), National Review, November 29, 1993 p18

"Patrick J. Buchanan and the Jews", Joshua Muravchik, Commentary, January 1991 p35-36

The column defending Waldheim was reportedly in the Chicago Sun Times, March 1989.

Holocaust and Historical Revisionism sources

"Ivan The Terrible -- More Doubts?", Pat Buchanan, New York Post, March 17, 1990

"Denying the Holocaust", Deborah Lipstadt, ISBN 0-452-27274-2, p 5-6, p 26, p 238 notes 13 & 14

"The Heresies of Pat Buchanan", Jacob Weisberg, The New Republic, October 22, 1990 p26-27

Jamie McCarthy, USENET, April 8, 1995

"Buchanan on Trial", Joshua Muravchik (letter), National Review, November 29, 1993 p2

"The Demanjuk fallout" (editorial response to above letter), National Review, November 29, 1993 p18

"Patrick J. Buchanan and the Jews", Joshua Muravchik, Commentary, January 1991 p35-36

"The Beltway Populist", Jonathan Alter, Newsweek, March 4, 1996 p26

You keep trusting those commies William. There has never been one single shread of credible evidence that Demjanjuk ever harmed a single person anywhere. Ivan Marchenko was the REAL Ivan. Deal with it. Those who persecuted and tried to frame Demjanjuk were no better than Nazis themselves. Good reading below William, check it out.

An Evil Campaign to Frame an Innocent Man The Demjanjuk Affair: The Rise and Fall of a Show-Trial, by Yoram Sheftel. London: Victor Gollancz, 1994. 379 pages. Reviewed by Lesya Jones On July 29, 1993, John Demjanjuk was acquitted by the Israeli Supreme Court of the charge of being the sadistic Treblinka guard "Ivan the Terrible." This book, written by his Israeli attorney, deals with the pivotal Israeli chapter of his 16 year ordeal.

The title says it all, in a nutshell. It is a scathing and uncompromising account of the "trial of the century." Its author, a fervent Zionist and Israeli patriot, spares none of the many players in the Demjanjuk affair, not even the "Ukrainian goyim" who paid for his fees. It is a highly personal account in which the defense counsel, and not the accused, is the star attraction in a courtroom drama that riveted a worldwide audience.

An experienced criminal lawyer and expert in identification cases, with a penchant for adventure (he successfully defended the notorious gangster Meyer Lansky), Sheftel decided to join the defense team after being shown the highly suggestive and biased photo spread used to identify John Demjanjuk as "Ivan the Terrible." On a more personal level, he was motivated to take on the case because he was convinced that "the one and only purpose of this move was to conduct a special 'Israel-style' show trial, to teach Israeli children the story of the Holocaust and heighten Holocaust awareness among the public."

An International Conspiracy The fast-paced and ebullient style contrasts chillingly with the grim and sinister content. Sheftel amasses incontrovertible evidence which proves that the Demjanjuk affair was not simply a case of mistaken identity but, rather, a deliberate and cold-blooded conspiracy by superpowers United States and former Soviet Union, as well as Germany, Israel and Poland to withhold exculpatory evidence in their possession and send to the gallows an innocent no man's man. These countries did this in pursuit of their respective agendas.

In the United States, the Office of Special Investigation (OSI) at the Department of Justice, which was established to investigate alleged Nazi war criminals residing in the US, was particularly zealous in its efforts to destroy Demjanjuk. Having just lost a series of decisions, the OSI was, in fact, fighting for its life. Congressman Joshua Eilberg, Chairman of the House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Immigration, wrote in August, 1978, to US Attorney General Griffin Bell re the Demjanjuk case: "We cannot afford to risk losing another decision." This anxiety was shared by Alan Ryan Jr., who headed the OSI from its establishment until 1981. In an interview with a local Alabama newspaper in 1991, Ryan reminisced: "If we had lost that case, we probably would have had a very short life span." In other words, "the OSI conspired to shorten Demjanjuk's life in order to lengthen its own."

Evidence Discarded and Manufactured In fact, the OSI knew as early as August 1978 from Moscow cables sent to the State Department in Washington as well as to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv that John Demjanjuk was not "Ivan the Terrible," and not only did it withhold that evidence from the defense, but dumped some of it, including original documents, into its trash bins. Furthermore, the garbage contents revealed that the OSI did not just conceal exonerating evidence, but manufactured false affidavits in collusion with the Israeli prosecution.

In reading this book, one gets the impression that, far from being intimidated, the author relished being "Satan's lawyer" and "the most hated man in Israel." Courage, not modesty, is Sheftel's cardinal virtue. But then, Demjanjuk's attorney has nothing to be modest about. After all, he took on single-handedly his country's justice system and formidable mass media and won unprecedented decisions on both counts, debunking firmly entrenched myths that Israel possesses a model justice system and an independent, unbiased press.

Neither death threats, unrelenting harassment by the judges, daily vilification in the media, suspicious suicide of a prominent colleague on the eve of the appeal, an acid attack by an alleged Holocaust survivor, which nearly left him blind; not even the wrath of his beloved mother could stay this intrepid attorney from the case. And in the darkest hour, when all seemed lost -- there being no time to prepare the appeal -- fortune and history intervened. A timely heart attack of one of the judges granted a crucial respite and the collapse of the Soviet Union made it possible to access KGB archives which established conclusively Demjanjuk's innocence and forced the Israeli Supreme Court's hand.

Sheftel delights in getting back at his opponents and detractors, especially his nemesis, the presiding Supreme Court Justice Dov Levin. The chapter entitled "Dovele" is written as "sweet revenge" for the many humiliations, trials and tribulations Sheftel endured, and may be of particular interest to the legal community in North America. It will shock those who choose to read it, for the instances of judicial misconduct are legion.

For example, immediately after affixing his signature to the verdict, Judge Levin set off on a lecture tour of the United States, undeterred by the fact that the Demjanjuk case was still sub judice. Ohio's Plain Dealer cited one of his many legal gems, namely: "We cannot be impressed by someone claiming 'I am innocent.' Innocence must be proven." Sheftel is angered and embittered by "the cowardice and hypocrisy of the thousands of the Israeli legal community." The only one who dared to speak out publicly was the highly respected, retired Judge Haim Cohen. In an interview with the newspaper Al Hasharon, Judge Cohen stated: "It was a spectacular for the people. Any resemblance to justice was purely coincidental."

'Death to Ukrainians' The reader will be revolted, along with Lord Denning, revisiting the reading of the sentence after which a jubilant mob danced and shouted: "Death, death," "Death to Ivan," "Death to the defense attorney," "Death to all Ukrainians ..." It may be recalled that Lord Denning condemned the grotesque spectacle in Jerusalem as "contrary to international law" and showing "signs of racial and political vengeance." (The Daily Telegraph [London], April 28, 1988).

With the exception of Chrystia Freeland's review in The Financial Times (London), December 10-11, 1994, Sheftel's work continues to be ignored, except in Israel Demjanjuk's miraculous acquittal appears to have put a damper on the projected multimillion "Ivan the Terrible"/Demjanjuk entertainment industry. The only ones benefitting are those who conspired to send an innocent man to a horrific death by hanging.

Lessons In spite of the fact that the Sixth Circuit Court in Cincinnati, Ohio, found "fraud upon the court," the OSI is still in business, and the chief architects of the Demjanjuk affair not only remain unpunished, but have found lucrative employment elsewhere. While in Israel, Judges Zvi Tal and Dalia Dorner were elevated to the Supreme Court.

The book is highly recommended, especially to our legal Ukrainian community. There was quality input by Ukrainian attorneys into Demjanjuk's defense. Paul Chumak of Toronto did a first-rate job as one of a team of Demjanjuk's lawyers and the late Jaroslaw Dobrowolskyj of Detroit played a crucial role in uncovering evidence which cleared John Demjanjuk. Others labored behind the scenes. This reviewer is, therefore, saddened by the fact that our legal community continues to pretend that the Demjanjuk affair involved one individual Ukrainian, and refuses even to acknowledge the existence of a collective indictment against Ukrainians. Let me cite from pages 4 and 7 (English translation) of the Indictment by the State of Israel versus Ivan (John) Demjanjuk, Criminal Case 373/86:

The auxiliaries played an essential role in the annihilation of the Jews; without them, the commanders of Operation Reinhardt could not have carried out their plan... These auxiliaries, in the main Ukrainians, worked with SS personnel in carrying out all the acts of annihilation, murder and oppression committed against the Jewish victims in the camps. May this indictment, which still stands, serve as a challenge to our legal community to right a historical wrong.