fbpx

Demjanjuk trial postponed

The trial of accused Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk was postponed because the defendant was too sick to come to court.
[additional-authors]
December 2, 2009

The trial of accused Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk was postponed because the defendant was too sick to come to court.

Prison doctors determined that Demjanjuk, 89, and said to be ill with several chronic disorders, had a fever and infection and could not be taken to court in Munich.

The trial, which began Monday, is set to resume Dec. 21 and is still expected to end in May.

Demjanjuk is accused of being an accessory to the murder of 29,700 Jews at the Sobibordeath camp in Poland in 1943. He has denied the charges, saying he was a Soviet prisoner of war in a German camp.

In 2002, the U.S. Justice Department charged Demjanjuk with being a guard at Sobibor and revoked his citizenship for lying about his Nazi past in order to gain citizenship. He was extradited to Germany in May.

In the early 1980s, Demjanjuk was accused of being the notorious guard “Ivan the Terrible” at the Treblinka death camp. He was deported to Israel in 1986 and sentenced to death in 1988. But the Israeli Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1993 after finding reasonable doubt that he was the guard in question.

New evidence allowed the current charges to be brought.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Stuffed with Spice and Simcha

The custom of eating stuffed vegetables on Simchat Torah is to symbolize the scrolls of the Torah filled with the wisdom of the holy text.

Crisis of Truth

An uproar over an article showing discrimination against Jewish and Israeli writers dramatizes how ideology and politics prevail over truth.

Two Elections, One People

On October 27, Israelis will elect the 26th Knesset. A week later, on November 3, Americans will vote in pivotal midterm elections.

The Return to Biblicalness

Shattering as it’s been, there’s something to be said for this abrupt return to biblicalness. By this awkward word I don’t mean belief in religion, necessarily, but appreciation for values that have fallen into disfavor in our supposedly enlightened age.

From Darkness to Hope

While we cannot choose when darkness comes, each one of us can choose how we respond to it.

The Wrong Lesson from Madison Square Garden

In an instant, Mr. Lander went from being a fellow protester to being treated by some in the crowd as morally disqualified because of one word attached to him: “Zionist.”

Empathy and Apathy

In our upside-down world, where truth is murdered by ideology, empathy is not merely lacking: it has been corrupted.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.