Word: demjanjuk
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Then, last month, the Israeli Supreme Court delivered the mortal blow to Ryan's contention that Demjanjuk was Ivan the Terrible. Ruling that the KGB evidence established a reasonable doubt about Ivan's identity, the court freed Demjanjuk...
...decision was hailed by legal scholars around the world who saw it as the only fair outcome in a case in which the prosecution's central argument was that Demjanjuk was Ivan...
...decision was criticized, too. John Demjanjuk may not have been Ivan the Terrible, but reliable evidence demonstrates he was almost certainly a death camp guard at Sobibor. Ivan the Little Less Terrible, so to speak. To some, especially to the many Holocaust survivors and their descendants in Israel, it was like letting Satan Joose on a technicality...
...ensuing hand-wringing has been massive. Some say the blame lies with stubborn Justice Department lawyers such as Ryan who mistakenly held to the notion that Demjanjuk was Ivan in an effort to have a show trial that would advance them professionally. Others say the Israeli and American prosecution's reliance on eyewitness testimony--unreliable because of the passage of time and painful memories--doomed the case...
...most enduring damage caused by the Demjanjuk case, which was used by many Israeli schools as a way to teach children about the Holocaust, may be to the ongoing search for Nazis in the United States. Eyewitnesses may no longer want to testify, Political support for maintaining the Office of Special Investigations is weakening...