Posted on 03/17/2012 8:38:34 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town
BERLIN (AP) — John Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. autoworker who was convicted of being a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp despite steadfastly maintaining over three decades of legal battles that he had been mistaken for someone else, died Saturday, his son told The Associated Press. He was 91.
Demjanjuk, convicted in May of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison, died a free man in his own room in a nursing home in the southern Bavarian town of Bad Feilnbach. He had been released pending his appeal.
John Demjanjuk Jr. said in a telephone interview from Ohio that his father apparently died of natural causes. Demjanjuk had terminal bone marrow disease, chronic kidney disease and other ailments, and local authorities said the exact cause of death was still being determined.
It was not yet known whether he would be brought back to the U.S. for burial.
Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk (dehm-YAHN'-yook) had steadfastly denied any involvement in the Nazi Holocaust since the first accusations were levied against him more than 30 years ago.
"My father fell asleep with the Lord as a victim and survivor of Soviet and German brutality since childhood," Demjanjuk Jr. said. "He loved life, family and humanity. History will show Germany used him as a scapegoat to blame helpless Ukrainian POWs for the deeds of Nazi Germans."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Convicted of crimes against humanity by of all people, GERMANY!
I do not know if he was a POW or forced death camp guard. Regardless, the stte decided he was guilty over thirty years ago and tormented this man no matter the proof.
The earthly end of a man whom I believed to be honorable and innocent of all charges!
May he rest in peace and may his family receive consolation and peace in the knowledge that their innocent father is with our Savior.
I wonder why Tom Lehrer didn’t get in the act like he did with Wernher von Braun:
“Some have harsh words for this man of renown
But some think our attitude should be one of gratitude
Like the widows and cripples in old London town
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.”
God is the final judge.
Good riddance
Tom Lehrer was a lot wiser than his fans.
He knew a little bit of this stuff went a long way.
He was guilty as Hell. The only reason he was never put to death was the stupidity of all the nations and their courts. Technical legal glitches kept him alive, not any innocence.
http://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2011/05/13/the_persecution_of_john_demjanjuk/page/full/
” And John Demjanjuk, 91, after spending five years on death row for a crime he did not commit in a place he never was, is stateless and homeless in a Germany where veterans of the SS walk free. “
For the U.S. government to single him out for prosecution was a disgrace.
RIP
Yeah, it is telling that they pursued him with great fervor for all of those years yet pay no attention to scumbags like Soros who was an admitted Nazi collaborator.
NO less than the Israelis judged and released him. And the final amazing part was that Germany was prosecuting him. SS men walk free there,, and there would have been no Sobibor without the Germans invading Ukraine.
Thats an amazing disconnect,, to have Germans, trying a Ukrainian,,, for things people may have done, under threat of immediate death by them.
“For the U.S. government to single him out for prosecution was a disgrace.
“
The disgrace was not prosecuting ALL the Nazi guards and killers.
Some “autoworkers” had it a little better.
Joachim Peiper,, SS commander who repeatedly mass murdered, including American prisoners at Malmedy.
“On 17 January 1957 he began work at Porsche in Stuttgart in its technical division. He would later represent the company at car exhibitions. He was later put in charge of auto exports to the United States but his wartime criminal conviction prevented him from obtaining a visa for travel to the United States. This would not allow him to maintain this new position.
As he advanced within Porsche, he was accused by Italian union workers of the Boves Massacre in Italy during World War II. Ferdinand Porsche personally intervened and promised Peiper a senior management position, but this offer was derailed by the trade unions, who objected to allowing persons convicted of war crimes to serve in the upper management of the company. The strong antipathy to Peiper, his association with Ferdinand Porsche and the related negative impact on sales in Porsche’s biggest market, the United States, forced Porsche’s management to dismiss him. On 30 December 1960 Peiper filed suit to compel Porsche to fulfil its promises”
Lucky he wasn’t a lowly camp guard from the invaded people.
Which attests to neither his guilt or innocence. It's a shame that he became a political football. If he was guilty of the crimes of which he was accused, justice was not done for his victims. If he was an innocent scapegoat, then he was the victim of a terrible injustice.
In any case, his life is now being judged perfectly, and that's something that awaits us all.
Injustices like this happen because people, in the desire for vengeance, often forget that making people into scapegoats doesn’t do anything to advance justice. It is to try to prevent situations like this that we have the “innocent until proven guilty” rule.
As someone mentioned, it *is* telling that Soros still walks free, although he admitted to collaboration with the Nazis and is thus responsible for God only knows how many innocent deaths. And Soros apparently enjoyed being a collaborator. I could ask why Soros walks free, while an autoworker who would be otherwise unknown was persecuted for so long... but I think we all know the an$wer.
The evidence against him was an ID card produced by the soviet KGB, during the height of the cold war. That and a few “eyewitnesses”.
Ever go to a 30th high school reunion? How about a 40th? Or a 50th? Some people almost look the same,, and some you saw everyday cannot be recognized. The Israeli courts said the testimony was not trustworthy. If the state of Israel won’t convict him, that should give us pause. (about this one case, not about Nazis in general)
He was found guilty with plenty of evidence to show it.
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