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Accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, covered in a blanket and in a wheelchair, is helped in a courtroom in Munich - Source: Reuters -
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The trial of John Demjanjuk, an 89-year-old former guard at a
Nazi camp, opened on Monday on charges of helping to force 27,900
Jews into gas chambers at Sobibor death camp in 1943.
Demjanjuk, a former US carworker, was pushed in a wheelchair with a
headrest before the court at what is likely to be Germany's last
big trial from the Nazi era.
Wearing a cap and in a reclined position, he was draped in a
light-blue blanket.
German state prosecutors accuse Demjanjuk, who was top of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted war criminals, of assisting
in killings at the Sobibor death camp, in what is now Poland, where
at least 250,000 Jews were murdered.
He denies he was involved in the Holocaust and his family insists
he is too frail to stand trial.
"Justice takes a long time. I am not seeking revenge for Demjanjuk.
He should tell the truth," said plaintiff Thomas Blatt, whose
family was killed at the camp in 1943 and who at 15 was ordered to
sort out belongings of Jews sent to be gassed.
"Today is important because it is the last big international case
that everyone is interested in."
Demjanjuk was fairly motionless at the packed proceedings, his
mouth occasionally dropped open.
He was pale and his eyes were closed most of the time.
He showed no expression and it was impossible to tell if he was
aware of what was being said.
"Demjanjuk put on a great act," said Efraim Zuroff, director of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel Office.
"He should have gone to Hollywood, not Sobibor."
Demjanjuk's son said his father had been in hospital for five days
in the last week to undergo tests and had a blood transfusion due
to a bone marrow disease.
The medical officer charged with assessing Demjanjuk said he was
fit for trial.
Due to his weak condition, hearings will be restricted to two
90-minute sessions a day.
His lawyer, Guenther Maull, said he was in pain and suffered
from periods of mental absence.
Demjanjuk, who was born in Ukraine and fought in the Red Army
before being captured by the Nazis and recruited as a camp guard,
was extradited in May from the United States where he had lived in
a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
He emigrated to the United States in 1951, becoming a naturalised
citizen in 1958, and worked in the auto industry.
Red army prisoner
Another defence lawyer Ulrich Busch argued the foundation of the
trial was flawed and it should be called off as Nazis in more
senior positions and collaborators had not been convicted.
Busch said that to save his life a Trawniki (a Red Army prisoner
recruited by the SS for death camps) had to cooperate.
"This Trawniki (Demjanjuk), nobody knew what he did, for him to be
deported or even imported 7,000 kilometres while others are left
untouched, what is the reason for this?"
The court must decide by Wednesday whether to accept Busch's
argument.
Meanwhile, the judge decided the trial, which is expected to
last until May, would continue.
If all goes to plan, the prosecution will read the charges on
Monday and Demjanjuk, who could be sentenced to spend the rest of
his life behind bars, will have the chance to respond.
Prosecutors plan to show the court documents, including an
identity card, which they say prove he was at Sobibor and they will
call about 20 witnesses.
"Mr Blatt (a plaintiff) isn't doing this out of revenge or to be
compensated," said his lawyer Stefan Schuenemann, adding:
"Mr Blatt thinks that after such a long time it is too late for
atonement ... It is important for him that the story of Sobibor ...
is today given a platform so that he can describe the terrible
murders that were carried out in this extermination camp 66 years
ago."
While the case has attracted enormous global interest, many Germans
would prefer to draw a line under the Nazi past and focus on a
Germany's new-found role on the world stage.
Although he has acknowledged being at other camps, Demjanjuk has
denied he was in Sobibor, which prosecutors say was run by 20-30
Nazi SS members and up to 150 former Soviet war prisoners.
Demjanjuk was extradited from the United States to Israel in 1986,
accused of being Ivan the Terrible, a notoriously sadistic guard at
the Treblinka death camp.
He was sentenced to death in 1988 but his conviction was
overturned when new evidence showed another man was probably
Ivan.
In the Sobibor gas chambers, Jews died in 20 to 30 minutes after
inhaling a toxic mix of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, say
prosecutors, who argue that Demjanjuk was at the camp for about six
months in 1943.
