Accused Nazi guard John Demjanjuk dies at 91

[RZM]

CLEVELAND — Former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk died Saturday (March 17) in Germany, ending nearly 35 years of legal battles with officials in three countries who claimed he was a guard in a Nazi death camp. He was 91.

During his decades-long trials, Demjanjuk was imprisoned in the United States, sentenced to death in Israel — until its highest court freed him — and, last May, convicted in Germany for serving as an accessory in the deaths of more than 28,000 people at a death camp.

A German court sentenced Demjanjuk to five years in prison but he was freed while he appealed the conviction.

Demjanjuk had been living in a nursing home in Bad Feilnbach in southern Germany, according to The Associated Press. He died nearly three years after being taken from his home in suburban Cleveland and flown overseas.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/accused-nazi-guard-john-demjanjuk-dies-at-91/2012/03/19/gIQATV2jNS_story.html

The fate of Ukraine and Ukrainians in WWII is an interesting and sad story. On the one hand, many Ukrainian nationalists were perpetrators in the Holocaust. On the other hand, Ukrainians were caught between a German hammer and Soviet anvil (and before the war, the Polish state as well, where millions of Ukrainians lived). The terror famine in the 1930s turned many Ukrainians against the Soviets. Many also served in the Red Army during the war. Millions of Ukrainian civilians died under German occupation as well.

[ellisonz]

1. (withholding comment out of prejudice on this subject)

[RZM]

2. I had an argument with somebody about this once

She was from Cleveland and of Ukrainian descent. She said that he was 'just an old man' and that the authorities should 'leave him alone.'

I argued that for crimes like the Holocaust, there is no statute of limitations.

But I also understand that Ukrainians, especially Ukrainian nationalists, were not in an enviable position during the war. They were hated and persecuted by the two most ruthless regimes in the history of 20th century Europe. When both the Nazis and the Soviets are your enemy, you have a serious problem.

This doesn't excuse the conduct of those who collaborated. But it's also true that at the very beginning of the war, there were reasons for Ukrainians to side with the Germans. Memories like the terror famine die pretty hard, especially when they are less than a decade old. Given the information the average peasant had in 1941, it was reasonable for them to assume that anybody would be better than the Soviets (they were wrong, of course - the Germans were worse to them). Also, people remembered the German occupation of Ukraine during WWI. While they hadn't been perfect, that occupation regime was nothing like what followed in WWII.

But it also has to be said that active anti-Semitism was a tie that bound Ukrainian nationalists and the Nazis. There's no skirting that or denying it. Many Ukrainian nationalists (including the leader Stepan Bandera, who spent much of the war in a German concentration camp) were nasty, vicious characters.

[ellisonz]

4. Balanced response...

[RandySF]

3. Have a nice trip down.