John Demjanjuk -- Captured prisoner or Nazi death camp guard?
John Demjanjuk was born in the Ukraine. He says that during World War II he was a Red Army soldier that was captured and held prisoner. He couldn’t hurt anyone, he says.
Last month Bavarian prosecutors charged him with being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobihor death camp in Poland during World War II.
Demjanjuk was flown to Munich in May, arrested at his suburban Cleveland home after losing a legal fight to avoid deportation.
His attorney says the charges again Demjanjuk violate German legal precedent.
The attorney, Ulrich Busch, says that even it could be proved, previous German courts have ruled that others in similar situations could not be held responsible because they risked punishment if they didn’t follow orders.
That sounds familiar. “I was just following orders.”
A Munich state court must now decide whether to accept the charges and set a trial date. The deciding part is usually just a formality.
Comments
Real German Nazi guards have been immune from this prosecution for 30 years - why the double standard. This man would have been shot for refusing to follow orders - he had been reprimanded already.
See the movie "The Gray Zone" and learn who did the the work in the death camps.
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