updated 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
BERLIN - German prosecutors said Wednesday they have charged retired Ohio auto worker John Demjanjuk with more than 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for his time as a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp, and will seek his extradition from the U.S.
Demjanjuk is accused of participating in the murders while he was a guard at the Nazi camp in occupied Poland between March and September 1943.
"In this capacity, he participated in the accessory to murder of at least 29,000 people of the Jewish faith," Munich prosecutors said in a statement.



The 88-year-old Demjanjuk, who lives in a Cleveland suburb, denies involvement. His son, John Demjanjuk Jr., said Wednesday he would return a call later with comment. A family spokesman, former Demjanjuk son-in-law Ed Nishnic, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi hunter at Israel's Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he was "very pleased that the German authorities have taken this step."
"We hope that the process can be expedited to ensure that this Holocaust perpetrator will finally be appropriately punished," Zuroff told the AP in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. "We're on our way to a victory for justice today."
A native of Ukraine, Demjanjuk emigrated to the U.S. in 1952 and gained citizenship in 1958.
In denying involvement in war crimes, he has said he served in the Soviet army and became a prisoner of war when he was captured by Germany in 1942.
Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel in 1986, when the U.S. Justice Department believed he was the sadistic Nazi guard known as Ivan the Terrible from the Treblinka death camp.
Freed by an Israeli court
He spent seven years in custody before the Israeli high court freed him after receiving evidence that another Ukrainian was that Nazi guard.
Demjanjuk's U.S. citizenship was restored in 1998, but the U.S. Justice Department renewed its case, saying he was another Nazi guard and could be deported for falsifying information on his entry and citizenship applications in the 1950s.
A December 2005 U.S. court ruling determined that he could be deported to his native Ukraine or to Germany or Poland, but Demjanjuk spent several years challenging that ruling.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to consider Demjanjuk's appeal against deportation, clearing the way for the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which oversees cases against former Nazis, to seek his removal from the United States.
But it was unclear which country would take him — his native Ukraine, Poland or Germany.
Now, the Munich prosecutor's office, which is handling the case because Demjanjuk spent time at a refugee camp in the area after the war, said it was working on the extradition request with the German government.
Munich prosecutors credited help from the U.S. Office of Special investigations in clarifying the validity of Nazi-era identity papers in enabling them to file charges against Demjanjuk.
They said Demjanjuk will be formally charged before a judge once he is extradited to Germany.

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Too bad he can not be executed 29000 times

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The Next POTUS

Does anyone else find this a little contradictory?

First:

Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel in 1986, when the U.S. Justice Department believed he was the sadistic Nazi guard known as Ivan the Terrible from the Treblinka death camp.
He spent seven years in custody before the Israeli high court freed him after receiving evidence that another Ukrainian was that Nazi guard.


But it goes on to say this:

Munich prosecutors credited help from the U.S. Office of Special investigations in clarifying the validity of Nazi-era identity papers in enabling them to file charges against Demjanjuk.


It took 7 years for them to figure out this guy wasn't Ivan the Terrible after the US said he was.

Now because the US "clarified the validity of Nazi-era papers", this guy is going back to prison again.

I mean, what if he's innocent? What if he really was a POW and not a guard? Are we going to be more right 60-something years later than we were then??

This has come about because another country was still investigating, but the dude's been allowed to live here for decades. If our government didn't find the papers valid, we would have pissed off entire countries, hundreds of thousands of people. If our government did find the papers valid, an old man with one foot in the grave has to go to prison for a few weeks until he dies.

I'm not saying he IS innocent, I'm just looking at it from a different point of view here and it seems to be the only one that makes sense.

But If it turns out that there IS hard-proof that this guy was one of the guards who did this stuff, yeah, I definitely want him punished, even though it's too little and too late and that is something you can definitely blame our people for.

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The only way to bring about change is to actively strive to achieve it. - (7-24-09, Witchofthedogs)

29,000?

That number is just propaganda.

He probably only killed 290 people. 300, max.

I was actually thinking that number (29k) is kinda low I dont think (at least the Camp I saw) any of the Camps killed that low. If in fact he was a guard he is responsible for all the murders in that camp.

But in the midst of all this we will ignore the thousands of criminal, law breaking illegals running around loose.......

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No good deed goes unpunished

*golf clap*


+1 for subtlety.

Subtlety is of the essence.

I may need to go to Germany some day.

Oh, come on... The entire country was on vacation from 1939 to 1944. Just ask them, they'll tell you.

I toured the concentration camp of Dachau in Germany many years ago. Words cannot describe the terror and sadness that can still be felt there all these years later.

My family suffered under the Nazis, most of them died in the camps or were starved to death outside of them. For me, I want them to kill the right man, and I have faith that he is who they say he is I would spit in his face if I had the chance.

NEVER AGAIN!

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Here's a solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners, searches, pat downs, etc. Have an appropriate booth that you can step into that will not X-ray you, but WILL detonate any explosive device you may have on you.

They get their wish and we get ours!

I hope so, and I'd be right there spittin on the other side.

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What was done to the Jews was wrong, very few will deny that, but to say that if he was a guard he is responsible for all the murders in the camp is also wrong.

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Zoë says, Enough is enough, Bring on the Spring!

How so ?

If you and a buddy go and rob a store he pulls out a gun and kills the clerk you dont think you will be charged with murder ?

There is NO way a guard at one of these camps did not know what was going on inside.

In the UCMJ as a Military member failure to stop atrocity is a crime

If Iparticipate in a crime with my buddy and something bad happens, sure - why I participated of my own free will and am responsible.

UCMJ? The Nazi's had one? I think not. True they knew what was going on, but under Nazi rule, just what could they have done? Don't come back with you do not have to obey an illegal order, does not apply in this case +
you don't really know if this guy was actively envolved or not.

It is an emotional issue no doubt, but dont let emotions run over objectivity.

Bill

inaction is no excuse. He could of risked his life and attempted to smuggle a few people out to tell the world (yes the world knew what was going on but refused to believe it). I am the least religious person you will probably ever know . If you have not yet I recommend going to the Holocaust Museum in DC plan on spending 6 to 8 hours there . I might be a bit partial I saw first hand the attempted genocide of the Muslims in Bosnia there is just no way and I mean no way I would be able to stand idly by while a mass of people were executed UNLESS I was a willing participant.

People when faced with a situation where inaction and ignoring means they live and action means they'd probably die, even for a good cause, it's a crap-shoot, not many can say with 100% certainty which course they'd take.

This is why the facts are so important in these cases. Nothing can be based on emotions or what any specific person says they would have or wouldn't have done.

If there's proof that this guy is one of the guards who enabled these murders, whether by being a willing participant or putting up blinders, he deserves the full force of any punishment he can possibly be given.

What pisses me off the most is that he's been allowed to live HERE, to work, earn a living, raise a family, have a business, live out his life and his days and now that he's 88 and not far from the grave anyway, out comes 'proof' that should have been presented decades ago.

The line gets drawn in the sand quite often.

And when you're willing to step over a little line, one that compromises your principles and beliefs maybe just a little bit, for safety or for advancement, then another line gets drawn.

And when you think about it, if you could get past that 'other' LITTLE line, the next line doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal.

And then another line gets drawn. And another. And another.

We all know the cliche. By the time you're done crossing lines, you can't even see far enough back to remember where you started.

Most of us are weak and Nationalistic. We'll do what we are expected to do rather than be called Traitors or treasonous.

Most especially when everyone else is saying the same thing. We like to be part of the popular crowd. All we want is to be normal.

When the fat kid got picked on in school, some of us stuck up for him.

Some of us joined in on it.

Most of us were so happy that we were not the ones being picked on, we just let it happen. Because what could we do to stop an angry mob, besides risk the wrath ourselves?

I'm not saying Nazi criminals don't deserve to be brought to justice.

I'm saying, Do you really think most of us aren't forever the children that followed the crowd?

Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist. Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.


When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.