John Demjanjuk Dead, Convicted Nazi War Criminal Dies Aged 91

Huffington Post UK  |  By Posted: 17/03/2012 13:55 Updated: 17/03/2012 14:16

Convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk has died at the age of 91, his son confirmed on Saturday.

Demjanjuk was convicted in May last year of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp. He denied the charges, claiming he was a prisoner of war himself.

He was sentenced to five years in prison but was released to a nursing home in the southern Bavarian town of Bad Feilnbach pending an appeal.

According to AP, John Demjanjuk Jr said his father had died of natural causes.

He had been suffering from terminal bone marrow disease and chronic kidney disease among other ailments.

Demjanjuk was working as a car maker in Ohio when he was stripped of his citizenship and deported to Germany to face trial in 2009.

He was convicted on similar charges by an Israeli court in 1986 but doubts over his identity resulted in the verdict being overturned.

FOLLOW UK

Convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk has died at the age of 91, his son confirmed on Saturday. Demjanjuk was convicted in May last year of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder at th...
Convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk has died at the age of 91, his son confirmed on Saturday. Demjanjuk was convicted in May last year of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder at th...
 
 
  • Comments
  • 94
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Post Comment Preview Comment
To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to.
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2  Next ›  Last »  (2 total)
18:28 on 31/03/2012
The photo here, showing him holding up a number; it is of the archive file in Russia that may hold the answer to whether or not he ever was even a guard; and that he was a prisoner only. The motion presented near the end of trial, the request was denied. On what grounds? At the Tremblinka trial also, prosecution later was found to alter and destroy evidence. How much of a kangaroo court was it?
17:57 on 22/03/2012
Neal Sher, a US lawyer who helped deport JD for the Tremblinka case; was disbarred from District of Columbia after he pleaded no contest to misappropriation of funds. Also he advised the Canadian gov. on hunting war crimminals. Several cases were thrownout of court. One case (maybe separate), a guy was harassed for years. Until Canada finally apologized. War crimes to justice, yes! Witch hunts? Not tolerable! If JD's name is cleared like last time; it will go down in history a shame.
20:16 on 18/03/2012
This is typical of the Huffstasi. I have tried to post a comment 3 times and they will not allow it. What is the problem I wonder with a reference to some easily verifiable history unless they are attempting to change history in an Orwellian sense?
20:52 on 18/03/2012
5 times now! They obviously don't like reference to two particular Japanese cities at the end of WW2..........can't imagine why????!!!
photo
mmartini54
Roll on 2015!
18:15 on 18/03/2012
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
photo
hculliton
Match bearings and shoot!
00:24 on 19/03/2012
You took the words out of my mouth. F&F.
09:04 on 18/03/2012
Most of Demjanjuk's peer and cohorts are long gone. What remains are the concepts, the systems and apparatus that could create such wholesale, brutal murder. We have seen how low and off the curve humanity can fall. Never can we go there again. We must be vigilant in who we elect, support and allow to govern. Sloth and indifference bring us a certain brand of government. Panic and desperation another. What would full participation bring?
15:36 on 18/03/2012
The leaders of the holocaust are are since gone are that are left are the little fish. Those that can, should be brought to justice even if they are in their ninities.
18:40 on 31/03/2012
Germany pardoned thier guards long ago. The 'fishing' would have been much better in thier pond; rather than go after such a dubious case.
06:12 on 18/03/2012
Its sickening to think that this convicted sub-life was allowed to live to a ripe old age when those he was party to killing saw such a short and unhappy life.

It is noticeable that the US was able to strip him of his citizenship and deport him to Germany - the UK should cut the BS and learn lessons in how to treat sub-human effluent such as Demjanjuk rather than cow-tow to current PC exhibitions of unearned human rights.
This comment has been removed.
05:37 on 11/05/2012
The US might give back his citizeship posthumously. For 25 years the FBI kept a document secret. In which they believed an ID card (supplied by Soviets) showing him as a guard at Sobibor appeared a forgery. (Ditto for Tremblinka card). As early as 1987, Sobibor survivors could not idenitfy him. And there's much more. His name was cleared before. It may happen again.
02:57 on 18/03/2012
My thoughts growing up were to bring these men to justice, justice quite rightly holds no value to age, but even after being acquitted of the same crimes by Israel, the state that would have the most to gain from a guilty verdict, gives me the impression that maybe these trials are going ahead to keep the story of the jewish holocaust alive, thoughts that are shared by Dalia Domer, a retired member of Israel's Supreme Court which tried Demjanjuk in an earlier trial that resulted in his acquittal who said "The importance of everything that happened was in how it put on the table once more the things that were done (to the Jews). The main thing is that it is not forgotten, that humanity learns a lesson from this," she told Israeli television. Indeed Dalia. But it seems the humanity in putting an acquitted 91 year old on trial is irrelevant to 'the importance of everything that happened'
00:43 on 19/03/2012
Since the state of Israel has most to gain by keeping the history of the jewish holocaust alive, it seems peculiar that you interpret Israel acquitting him as being somehow an attempt to keep the whole thing going.
02:48 on 19/03/2012
I'm sorry but you have misinterpreted me. 'Israel acquitting him as being somehow an attempt to keep the whole thing going.'...Firstly, he went to trial from 1986-1988, where he was found guilty and then acquitted in 1993, 5 years after being sentenced to death. So the acquittal is almost incidental if you're primary goal is to keep the story alive, in the words of Judge Domer "...how it put on the table once more the things that were done (to the Jews)." Before placing a man on trial you would think that the primary piece of evidence would have been investigated thoroughly before convicting a man of 28000 murders. Whatever the crime, sentencing someone to death based on one document, without checking it's authenticity, is suspect at best.
02:30 on 18/03/2012
The evidence against him was a Nazi ID card provided by the KGB at the height of the cold war, which the FBI and the Israeli's have both concluded was a forgery, hence the acquittal by Israel.
14:23 on 21/03/2012
He was acquitted because Trafficant found docs that revealed the true identity of Ivan. Spent 7 years on death row despite experts saying card looked faked. (One of them later fell out of hotel window to her death). In Sobibor case, the FBI doc saying card maybe faked, was kept hidden for years. It could have stoped US from deporting JD. Judge refused it, along with permission for defense tolook in Russian archives.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Claudia L
Time is the seed of the Universe
23:36 on 17/03/2012
Too small recompense for demolishing Europe.
22:18 on 17/03/2012
it's all going wrong for the huns....what with glasgow rangers about to be liquidated........
photo
Catriona
Wha daur meddle wi me?
01:13 on 18/03/2012
Yer a bad lad =LOL=
This comment has been removed.
20:38 on 17/03/2012
There I was hoping to see some justice for all those he killed? It is a pity they couldn't have kept the vegetable alive?
05:46 on 11/05/2012
Then the man could have won the appeal. Especially if the judge was pressured to give a fair trial second time around. By not breaking or bending the rules of justice.
19:38 on 17/03/2012
God will judge.............He knows what actually happened
01:30 on 18/03/2012
Shalom...good answer.GOD will judge him..
KenInd
We too shall get through this.....
08:44 on 18/03/2012
And if he was not guilty, then those who bore false witness will be judged.

So, in a way, everyone involved will be judged on this one.
14:27 on 21/03/2012
But God in time just might reveal it.
18:54 on 17/03/2012
Good and about time !
photo
Catriona
Wha daur meddle wi me?
18:37 on 17/03/2012
The Nazi scientists who built the rockets that killed civilians in the battered British cities were taken to the US, welcomed, sheltered, and even given medals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro

Unless there is a valid attempt to administer justice in some equitable manner, I have no real interest in the elderly guards and other low-level participants.
This comment has been removed.
01:32 on 18/03/2012
We also took our pick of the SS to give us help against the Russians.
photo
Catriona
Wha daur meddle wi me?
02:35 on 18/03/2012
We know that here in Europe.

Thank you for your honesty.