Hundreds of New Prosecutions Against Nazi Death Camp Guards Reopened
German authorities have recently reopened hundreds of dormant investigations against Nazi death camp guards following the sentencing of retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk, who was convicted for complicity in the murder of thousands of Jews during the Nazi-era, The Associated Press reported.
Kurt Schrimm, head of the special Nazi war-crimes investigators, told AP that Demjanjuk’s case set a new legal precedent in Germany – as it was the first time prosecutors were able to convict someone without direct evidence that the suspect was involved in specific killings – allowing them to reopen files, which could possibly lead to dozens of new prosecutions against former death camp guards.
Though Demjanjuk was found guilty of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder for serving as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland and sentenced to five years in prison in May, he was released pending appeal.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Demjanjuk was 91 years old when he was convicted in 2011.
Because of the advanced age of all of the potential suspects, Schrimm explained to AP that he and his team have already begun their investigations, without waiting for Demjanjuk‘s appeal process to be over.
“It’s very clear that they’re old, that’s why we’re preparing everything now so that as soon as there is a final decision, we can move immediately with charges.”
This was a test for the German judicial system, the prosecutor said, to see if they were able to expedite the appeal process in an appropriate manner to enable other cases to go forward.
Schrimm believes there are less than 1,000 possible suspects living in Germany or abroad who could still be alive and prosecuted.
“We have to check everything – from the people who we were aware of in camps like Sobibor ... or also in the Einsatzgruppen.” He was not sure, however, if they would be able to prosecute those involved in camps that were not solely created for death.
Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, also shared with AP, “As our numbers – those of the victims – have also rapidly dwindled, this represents the final opportunity to witness justice carried out in our lifetimes.”
“Time is the enemy here.”
Demjanjuk’s guilty conviction was not the first time he was sentenced for his involvement in Holocaust-related war crimes.
He had previously been tried and found guilty in Israel for committing murder and acts of extraordinarily savage violence against Holocaust prisoners and was sentenced to death in 1988. Accused of being “Ivan the Terrible,” a notorious death camp guard, Demjanjuk was later released when the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the decision due to a finding of reasonable doubt based on mistaken identity.
He was later charged again, however, for serving as a death camp guard in Poland, in which he was deported from the U.S. to Germany to stand trial in 2009.
Munich prosecutors believed that if they could prove Demjanjuk was a guard at the Sobibor camp, which was solely an extermination camp, they could convict him of accessory to murder, which they were successful of.
Hoping to follow the success of Demjanjuk’s case, prosecutors are eager to bring justice to the victims of the Nazi regime.
Looking just at guards of Nazi death camps used only for killings, Zuroff told AP that thousands of possible prosecutions could be opened up.
Even if a small percentage of those thousands are alive and medically fit to be prosecuted, Zuroff believes dozens can still be “brought to justice.”
