Word: demjanjuk
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...More than 30 plaintiffs, including former Sobibor inmates and relatives of those killed, are attending the trial in Munich. Nineteen will give evidence in the case. But it's unlikely that anyone will be able to identify Demjanjuk after 66 years - one of the main obstacles that prosecutors face. There are no living witnesses who can tie him to specific killings, so prosecutors will have to rely on past statements from witnesses who are now deceased and written documents. If convicted, Demjanjuk faces up to 15 years in prison - the usual maximum sentence in Germany. (See pictures of the faces...
...Survivor Thomas Blatt, whose brother and parents died at the camp, has traveled from his home in California to Germany to testify. But even he admits it will be difficult to convict Demjanjuk. "I can't remember the faces of my parents now," the 82-year-old says. "How could I remember him?" Blatt says the trial is important, nonetheless. "I don't care if he ends up in prison or not," he says. "The world needs to find out what happened at Sobibor...
...Demjanjuk has a different take on the past. He portrays himself as a victim of the Nazis - a Red Army conscript who was captured by the Germans and then held as a prisoner of war in different camps. Demjanjuk has thus far remained silent about the charges leveled against him. "I expect he won't say anything during the whole trial," says his lawyer, Günther Maull. And, he adds, even if prosecutors can prove that Demjanjuk was at Sobibor, Maull maintains that he would have been there under duress. (Read "New Trial for Nazi War-Crimes Suspect...
...After gaining U.S. citizenship in 1958, Demjanjuk lived an unassuming life with his family in Cleveland, Ohio, working at a Ford car factory until evidence surfaced suggesting he had been an SS guard at the Treblinka death camp in Poland. The U.S. government revoked his citizenship and, in 1987, Demjanjuk went on trial in Israel, accused of being the notorious guard Ivan the Terrible. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. But in 1993, his conviction was overturned on appeal by the Israeli Supreme Court, which ruled that he wasn't the guard in question. Demjanjuk...
...Doctors who examined Demjanjuk testified on Monday that while he's frail, he's fit to stand trial and he's not suffering from dementia. The hearings will be limited to two 90-minute sessions each day so as not to tire him out. If his health deteriorates further, however, there's a chance the whole trial may grind to a standstill. As for the survivors and the relatives of those killed at Sobibor, they're just relieved the trial has started...