Jerusalem-The Simon Wiesenthal Center today noted the passing of former Sobiboir death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk in Germany at age 91, while awaiting an appeal of hisconviction for accessory to murder for the deaths of the Sobibor inmates murdered while he served at the infamous Nazi death camp from March to September 1943.
In a statement issued today by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center noted that the length ofthe Demjanjuk case, which began in the United States in the late seventies and continued initially in Israel and later back in the US and then in Germany, unfortunately might haveraised some doubt as his role during World War II, but there was never any doubt as far as the Center was concerned, that Demjanjuk had been an active participant in theimplementation of the "Final Solution," the Nazis' plan to annihilate European Jewry.
According to Zuroff: "Ivan Demjanjuk died guilty of his service in the Sobibor death camp and that is how he should be remembered, not as a person falsely accused, but as an individual who volunteeredto serve in the SS, and who at the height of his physical powers spent months helping to mass murder innocent Jews deported to that death camp. Justice was unfortunately delayedin this case, and hindered by complicating factors, but was ultimately achieved to the credit of the prosecutors in the US and Germany who handled the case."
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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO atinternational agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
death camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk in Germany at age 91, while awaiting an appeal of hisconviction for accessory to murder for the deaths of the Sobibor inmates murdered while he served at the infamous Nazi death camp from March to September 1943.