Posted on 04/02/2009 12:11:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An accused Nazi concentration camp guard living in Ohio will be deported Sunday to stand trial on murder charges in Munich, according to the German Justice Ministry.
John Demjanjuk, 88, a native of Ukraine who emigrated to the United States in 1952, is scheduled to arrive in Munich on a commercial flight Monday morning, said Guenter Maull, a defense lawyer representing him in Germany.
After a long investigation, a Munich court issued an arrest warrant last month for Demjanjuk, considered by Nazi hunters to be one of their most important remaining targets from World War II. He is wanted on 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for his actions as a prison guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943.
Demjanjuk will be imprisoned immediately in Munich and undergo medical examinations to determine if he is fit to stand trial, Maull said. He said Demjanjuk suffers from early-stage leukemia, kidney problems and rheumatism.
"He's an old man, a very sick and old man," Maull said in a telephone interview. ad_icon
Demjanjuk's family has said he is too frail to make the trip to Germany, let alone endure a lengthy murder trial. But the U.S. Department of Justice turned down a request to allow him to remain in the United States on humanitarian grounds, his lawyer said. He will be accompanied on the flight to Munich by a doctor, nurse and a U.S. law-enforcement official, Maull said.
Ulrich Staudigl, a spokesman for the German Justice Ministry, confirmed Demjanjuk's pending deportation. Laura Sweeney, a U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman, declined to
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
A factor in this case that has gotten little attention.
Liberals say the purpose of imprisonment is to rehabilitate. In this case, the defendant apparently rehabilitated himself, as by all accounts he lived a blameless life for well over 40 years after coming to this country. This is exactly the argument used for leniency for people like Ayers.
That is assuming, BTW, that this guy is indeed the person he is accused of being, which is by no means certain.
Anyway, what is liberals’ philosophical basis for tormenting the final years of a sick man in his 80s over crimes purportedly committed 60 years ago and which he quite obviously rehabilitated himself from?
You’re right.
We should put a bullet in the back of his head so he’s out of his misery.
That is an excellent question indeed! Liberals have succeeded at convincing many, many people that punishment is somehow an outdated concept. This example should immediately refute that idiotic notion in the eyes of most sane people.
I heard that Zero was devastated. He had a position lined up for this guy and everything.
My post was not with regard to whether this particular guy is guilty or not. Although an unbiased person might reasonably conclude that the prosecution is out of organizational pique that its original claim that he was “Ivan the Terrible,” a particularly brutal camp guard, was comprehensively disproven.
He is now accused of being a different camp guard, apparently just a random low-level guard accused of no particularly unusual level of brutality. I found it fascinating that a US Court had ruled the government’s case was proven at least partially because this guy could not prove where he spent the war. I thought the government had to prove its case, not the accused disprove it.
Was service as a camp guard truly voluntary? Could one refuse to serve, or quit and walk away? Or would that get one shot or tossed into the camp himself?
One also wonders how many thousands of Commie camp guards are retired living on their pensions, or still in power. ASAIK, only Cambodia has prosecuted its camp guards and their masters.
“One also wonders how many thousands of Commie camp guards are retired living on their pensions, or still in power.”
Sure. They should be killed, too.
But you eat an elephant one bite at a time.
Their philosophical basis is that they believe the legal system can achieve a state of cosmic justice; they can sit like gods over the lives of all, determining who is righteous and who is not, administering appropriate rewards or punishments for each. The capriciousness whereby their judgments affect some but not others never seems to bother them. Many Russian - and let’s be honest - American soldiers who did things just as horrifying will never face such ‘justice’, nor should they. The courts’ function is to preserve society from the excesses of human behavior, not take on the impossible task of setting all wrongs to right.
Liberals may say that, but prison serves to detain, punish AND rehabilitate (as a last resort). Until the weasely 1900s, prisons offered nothing in the way of rehabilitation, other than the fear of further imprisonment. We only added “rehabilitation” to make ourselves feel better about the whole thing.
If he’s guilty, the punishment part works for me.
Especially if he dies in prison.
A very important series of questions. I do not have documentation but I understand one could refuse. They would then be drafted to serve on the Russian front.
One is inclined to surmise here. What of Merkel and company? Oh yes, I do suppose if THEY had been alive or past infancy, in WW2, they would have been dragged kicking and screaming by the Gestapo. They would have stood virtually alone.
Yep, heroes all. (sarc). Post WW2, they now stand up for justice. How easy!
There is an astonishing amount of cynicism and hypocrisy in this prosecution.
Germany has requested his deportation to for trial, although Germany will not allow its own citizens to be deported for trial on Nazi charges in other countries. If he had been resident in Germany all this time, he could not be prosecuted, as their statute of limitations has expired.
No statute of limitations on being politically incorrect. He should have been a NKVD gulag guard.
I suspect that in this case Israeli justice is going to prove itself infinitely superior to Eurotrash justice....
AFAIK, nobody has presented evidence this guy personally did anything particularly horrifying. If he's guilty as charged, he was a perimeter guard at a camp, with little or no direct contact with prisoners.
He's charged with being a member of a criminal organization (the SS) and therefore is being held partially responsible for all its acts.
I just wish the same standard could be applied for the 100M+ murder victims of Communism, roughly eight times as many as the victims of the Nazis.
They have, the government has demonstrated in three different trials that he was an SS member who served at Trawniki, Treblinka, Sobibór, Majdanek and Flossenburg, based on both witness’ and documentary evidence. Yes, some of it from the Soviets, which is what cast doubt on his role as Ivan the Terrible. The fact that he has no credible alternative simply supports that.
Was service as a camp guard truly voluntary? Could one refuse to serve, or quit and walk away? Or would that get one shot or tossed into the camp himself?
In general yes, one volunteered for the SS. In Demjanjuk’s case, he was in the Red Army, was captured, and was one of a few thousand Soviet prisoners who volunteered to join the SS. He knew exactly what he was doing.
One also wonders how many thousands of Commie camp guards are retired living on their pensions, or still in power. ASAIK, only Cambodia has prosecuted its camp guards and their masters.
Simple, Russia doesn’t consider them criminals.
As a matter of curiosity, what sort or statute of limitations would you advocate for crimes like murder or attempted murder? Entering the country illegally? Obtaining citizenship illegally?
You wrote:
“But you eat an elephant one bite at a time.”
Apparently communist guards are never on the menu in the Western world these days.
I wonder how 60 year old elephant tastes?
” being a member of a criminal organization (the SS) and therefore is being held partially responsible for all its acts.” Do you mean like the U.S. Congress?
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