Health of accused Nazi death camp guard hindering court trial

The case of accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk will resume next week after a month long summer break, and is becoming increasingly dominated by the man’s failing health, where he is compelled to attend most sessions in a hospital bed set up in the courtroom.

8 September 2010, 12:00am

2 min read

The case of the retired Ohio worker broke new ground when it opened last year, because it’s the first time German authorities have prosecuted such a low-ranking suspect, on the basis that even without evidence of a specific murder, working in a death camp is enough evidence to be an accessory to murder.

However, questions are his case have been overshadowed by the endless health complications of the man accused of having served in occupied Poland's Sobibor death camp.

The man’s health issues have slowed court proceedings down tremendously, as Demjanjuk’s needs cannot be scheduled exactly with the court’s schedule of evidence and witnesses. He suffers from bone marrow disease and other medical problems.

The Ukranian born man stood trial in Israel in the 1980s and was sentenced to the death for being brutal guard “Ivan the Terrible”. He was freed when an Israeli court overturned the ruling for mistaken identity.

Demjanjuk was deported from the US in 2009 to stand trial in Germany, charged with being an accessory to the murders of 28,060 people at Sobibor camp.

"There must be a limit," said Stefan Schuenemann, who represents two Sobibor survivors as co-plaintiffs in the trial. "How near must you be to the killing? You pushed Jews into the gas chambers or you just guarded the fence? These are questions that have to be answered in the trial and it's not easy ... where does responsibility start?"

On the man’s medical condition, his son John Demjanjuk Jr said "He is under constant medical care and while he is willing, he is unable to follow the proceedings and is no more fit for trial than 99 percent of the Germans currently living out their last days in nursing homes.”

But spokeswoman for prosecutors in Munich Barbara Stockinger said "I am no doctor... but there is always a doctor present and he has said that he is fit for trial.”

Since the Demjanjuk trial started, two other elderly suspects under investigation have died before their cases could be brought to court