Federal judge revokes citizenship of accused Nazi guard

Posted 3:23PM on Thursday 21st February 2002 ( 23 years ago )

CLEVELAND - John Demjanjuk's citizenship was revoked for the second time Thursday by a federal judge who agreed with government allegations that he was a Nazi death camp guard during World War II. In a ruling eight months after Demjanjuk's trial, Judge Paul Matia said there was enough evidence without eyewitness corroboration to prove Demjanjuk worked in Nazi camps in Sobibor, Trawniki and Majdanek in Poland and Flossenburg in Germany. "The government had the burden of proving its contention to the court by clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence," Matia said in a supplement to the ruling. "It did so." Matia ruled that Demjanjuk, 81, must surrender his U.S. passport and naturalization papers within 10 days. Ed Nishnic, Demjanjuk's son-in-law and family spokesman, said Demjanjuk would appeal. "We tried our case and continue to believe the government is wrong," Nishnic said. "We most respectfully believe that Judge Matia has made serious factual and legal errors in his opinion." The evidence included World War II documents such as work records and citizenship papers. Demjanjuk denied the papers were linked to him. Thursday's ruling sets in motion a years-long process that could end with Demjanjuk's expulsion from the United States, if the government can find another country willing to let him live there, said Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which coordinated the criminal case. Rosenbaum said Demjanjuk could be deported only after all of his appeals are exhausted. Justice officials also raised the possibility of extraditing Demjanjuk to stand new criminal charges in another country, one whose citizens were among those executed in the death camps. On Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Michael Chertoff said no countries had made such a request. It was the Justice Department's second attempt to strip Demjanjuk of his U.S. citizenship. In the latest case, federal prosecutors argued that he fraudulently became a citizen by covering up his past as a guard at several Nazi concentration camps. Demjanjuk formerly lost his U.S. citizenship in 1981 on evidence that he was the sadistic Nazi guard "Ivan the Terrible" at Treblinka, in Poland, in 1942 and '43. The 1981 case resulted in a trial in Israel, where Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to death in 1988. However, his conviction there was overturned in 1993, mainly on new evidence that someone else was Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka. The latest case did not include allegations of him being the Treblinka guard. Ephraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which monitors attacks on Jewish organizations and people, said: "Justice has won the day." Nishnic said the ordeal has been difficult on his father-in-law. "It's been a very stressful 25 years for him. The wear of this relentless prosecution by three superpowers has taken a toll on his health. "It is true that judges have ruled against us in the past and public opinion has been against us in the past," Nishnic said. "Nevertheless, we have proven them wrong before and have been vindicated." Demjanjuk, a former Ford Motor Co. factory worker, lives in the Cleveland suburb Seven Hills. He did not attend his recent trial and has spurned public attention since returning eight years ago from Israel. A deposition Demjanjuk gave to government lawyers in July 2000 was his last comment on his past. He denied aiding the Nazis. Demjanjuk has maintained that he served in the Soviet Army, was captured in 1942 and remained in German prisoner of war camps. His lawyers said Demjanjuk may have been confused with a cousin from the same Ukrainian village who also was named Ivan Demjanjuk. In the deposition, Demjanjuk said his cousin joined the Soviet Army a few weeks before he did. Keys to the government's case were documents kept by the Germans and archived by the Soviet Union that prosecutors said showed Demjanjuk was guard number 1393 and assigned to several Nazi camps after he was trained at Trawniki in Poland. One document allegedly indicated Demjanjuk was assigned in 1943 to the Sobibor, Poland, camp where guards forced Jews from trains into gas chambers. Demjanjuk held firm to his argument that he was a forced laborer as a prisoner of war. In one of his more detailed deposition responses, Demjanjuk, who used a Ukrainian translator due to his poor English, said: "I was in captivity in the military prison, and then I ended up in Graz. From Graz I ended up in Heuberg. And that is -- that is it. That's where it ends. And what is written here, how could it be me?"

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/2/202989