Demjanjuk back in jail after treatment for gout

Bert from KentuckyMay 28th, 2009 - 06:43:01

Mr. Demjanjuk was first charged with war crimes in 1977, and accused of being 'Ivan the Terrible.' During his productive period, from his immigration in 1952 to 1977, he married, raised a family, and led an exemplary life as an auto worker in the U.S.
After the war-crimes accusations and investigations instigated by the Simon Wiesenthal group, his life couldn't have been so idyllic. He spent time in Israel under sentence of death, before being released by the Israeli Supreme Court due to appearance of new evidence, having his citizenship restored, and again finding himself the subject of new accusations, again pursued by our Justice Dept., at the behest of the Wiesenthal group.
When it seemed that advanced age, a lack of evidence, and the presumption of innocence had defused the drive for 'justice' in his case, his accusers managed to find new sympathies and guilty consciences to carry on the cause in Germany. How Ironic!
At the defendant's current age of 89 years, most of the potentially enjoyable time in his life has been spent, much of the latter days in defence of his life. In this period he has been denied the peace to which a presumptively innocent man and his family should be entitled.
Even the passionate and vengeful Wiesenthals should reflect upon their motives, and upon this question: 'When does a quest for justice become the sentence?'
In their appetite for retribution for all the shameful acts of WW2 against Jews, are the Wiesenthals ignoring potential damage to the innocent,the unjustly accused? Those sentenced without trial? A role, to be sure, into which many of their race were cast in the Nazi horrors.
What if these passionate hunters of Nazi residue commit the same sort of crime of which their prey are accused, in the unjust execution of Mr. Demjanjuk by trial? Who will bring them to justice? Bert

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Lisa in Louisville, KY.May 28th, 2009 - 13:47:07

I agree with Bert. What has happened to Innocent UNTIL proven guilty? He was mistakenly convicted before and lost 7 years of him life. The ONLY evidence is a ID card?? Are you kidding me? What part of POW slips the mind here? Has anyone considered if he did 'herd' that he was doing it to save in own POW life??? Are there pictures for him herding people in these death chambers? Yeah, you have people that have have identified him....how old are these people? How old was Demjamjuk then? Even through all the trama at the time, 60+ years later they SWEAR he is THE ONE. I'm not buying all this. There is really NO hard evidence. I heard someone refer to this as a WITCH HUNT, and yeah, I agree with that. There were no charges against him in 1943, etc... but he is being held without bond/bail....why??? What makes him a flight risk? Where would he go? He's 89 years old for Pete's sake!

I know the Holocast was HORRIBLE and I am very saddened by that. I lived in Grafenwohr for 3 years and I heard alot from the Germans about this. Most of them were horrified by the holocast but does that make them guilty? Am I guilty because I lived in Germany? Come on people...use the brain God gave ya!!!!

Lisa in Louisville, KY!

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Mary LouiseMay 29th, 2009 - 11:42:47

Lisa..Innocent until proven guilty still applies here. He so far is only accused, not convicted. See how that works? So he avoided be caught for all those years, doesn't make him innocent. Have a nice day!

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Lisa in Louisville, KYMay 29th, 2009 - 20:50:33

Doesn't make him guilty either, now does it. Yes, I see how that works. I am not stupid believe it or not. I am just saying there is not much evidence. And yes, they are treating him as if he were guilty by keeping him in prison. I was not there, I have no idea if he did this or not, but memory fades no matter how great the trama. Witch hunt!

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Brian in BuffaloMay 30th, 2009 - 22:44:43

Lisa,
Ive been reading up on this case and simialr ones for the past few hours....
Aribert Heim: So-called Doctor Death and 'Butcher of Mauthausen', he was accused of performing operations without anaesthetics and injecting petrol directly into victims' hearts. German public television channel ZDF and the New York Times reported in February that he died of bowel cancer in 1992, citing his son and acquaintances in Cairo but no body has been found.
Even in old age the imposingly tall, athletic German known to locals as Tarek Hussein Farid maintained the discipline to walk some 15 miles each day through the busy streets of Egypt's capital. He walked to the world-renowned Al Azhar mosque here, where he converted to Islam, and to the ornate J. Groppi café downtown, where he ordered the chocolate cakes he sent to friends and bought the bonbons he gave to their children, who called him Uncle Tarek. Friends and acquaintances here in Egypt also remembered him as an avid amateur photographer who almost always wore a camera around his neck, but never allowed himself to be photographed. And with good reason: Uncle Tarek was born Aribert Ferdinand Heim, member of Adolf Hitler's elite Waffen-SS, and medical doctor at the Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen concentration camps.Heim was accused of performing operations on prisoners without anesthesia; removing organs from healthy inmates, then leaving them to die on the operating table; injecting poison, including gasoline, into the hearts of others; and taking the skull of at least one victim as a souvenir. After living below the radar of Nazi hunters for more than a decade after World War II — much of it in the German spa town of Baden-Baden where he had a wife, two sons and a medical practice as a gynecologist — he escaped capture just as investigators closed in on him in 1962.


This is the same man who lived a normal life after his connections with the Nazi party. These people are not unstoppable killing machines to the likes of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Of course they would try to keep under the radar and live normal quiet lives. This John or Ivan does seem to be the same person. People are accusing him that would know who he is. Would they really point the finger at someone that might be him? I doubt it. I'm sure what he looked liked when he was young is forever etched in his/her brains.

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NazihunterNhater777Jun 25th, 2009 - 09:14:45

Oh, how interesting...Are you sure it isn't ARI=BERT HEIM from Billings, Montana?

Aribert Heim is a dispicable, evil, disgusting soul who deserves to die the way he made other's die, an injection of gasoline, without anesthesia.. I would hold the stop watch, smile and of course see how long it took the MONSTER Heimy to reach the 'dark' side, where he belongs forever! Happy Birthday, I hope they pick you up soon-satan is waiting for you!

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