Ivan the Terrible Redux

John Demjanjuk's legal saga has been in the news for nearly 30 years.

It was in 1981 that Israel first sought extradition of the man who was later accused of being "Ivan the Terrible."

US authorities stripped him of his citizenship on the basis that he had lied on his citizenship application in the 50's and deported him to Israel.  He was found guilty and sentenced to death in 1988.

In 1993, the Israeli Supreme Court overturned his conviction based upon evidence in the form of written statements of former camp guards who identified another man as being Ivan the terrible.  The authors of these written statements were executed by the Soviets in a post war purge.  The Israeli Supreme Court decision drew a clear line of distinction for Israel as the sole multi party democracy in the Middle East that also has the maturity as a nation to acquit an accused Holocaust participant.

It would not have been an easy day for the Simon Weisenthal Center and Holocaust survivors but it was the right decision.  The conviction of Nazi War criminals is too important a matter to be supported by flimsy evidence.

So what has happened to Demjanjuk since?

He was returned to the United States where his citizenship was restored but then extradited to Germany where is now being tried for being a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp.

The evidence that is available would seem to indicate that he was indeed, at least, a junior member of the SS. (He was only 20 years old when his native Ukraine was invaded by Germany and 24 by the end of the war and so a junior role is plausible.)   That being said the trial should not be continued.

There is no Statute of Limitations for a number of crimes and crimes against humanity are certainly amongst them.  That being said it is worth remembering why such statutes exist in the first place.  Memories fade, witnesses die and physical evidence degrades.  This applies to both incriminating and exculpatory evidence.

The Nazis reign of terror ended 64 years ago.  Even a new conscript at the end of the war would be in his 80's.  Trials of Nazi War criminals were important, and cathartic, events for a world reeling from the horrors of the Holocaust.  They have now outlived their usefulness in that regard.  War Crimes trials are trivialized once they move on from prosecuting the brain trust to the pawns.

The Simon Weisenthals of the world should know that they did important and valuable work.  However they should now realize that a combination of their success and the passing of time has completed their work.

To continue on at this point risks undoing some of the good work that has been done by recording some unjust convictions and that should not part of their legacy.