On 29 July 1993, Israel's Supreme Court overturned the conviction of John Demjanjuk, bringing an end to one of the most closely watched war crimes trials of the twentieth century.
Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian-born former prisoner of war who had emigrated to the United States after the Second World War, had previously been convicted in Israel of being the notorious Nazi guard known as "Ivan the Terrible" at the Treblinka extermination camp. He had been sentenced to death in 1988.
However, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly released archives became available to investigators. The documents cast significant doubt on whether Demjanjuk was, in fact, the Treblinka guard known by that name.
After reviewing the new evidence, Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that there was reasonable doubt over his identity as "Ivan the Terrible". His conviction was quashed and he was released from prison after almost seven years in Israeli custody.
New Evidence Changed the Case
The court stressed that its decision did not amount to a finding that Demjanjuk had played no role in Nazi crimes during the Second World War. Instead, it concluded that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was the individual responsible for the atrocities committed at Treblinka under the nickname "Ivan the Terrible".
Demjanjuk returned to the United States following the ruling.
Later Prosecution in Germany
The legal story did not end there.
Years later, prosecutors in Germany brought a separate case alleging that Demjanjuk had served as a guard at the Sobibor extermination camp in occupied Poland.
In 2011, a German court convicted him of being an accessory to the murder of more than 28,000 people at Sobibor. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
Demjanjuk died in 2012 while his appeal against that conviction was still pending. Under German law, because the appeal had not been concluded, the conviction never became legally final.
The Demjanjuk cases remain among the most significant and legally complex Nazi war crimes prosecutions of the post-war era, illustrating both the difficulties of identifying individual perpetrators decades after the Holocaust and the continuing efforts to pursue justice for its victims.
Fast Facts
- Date: 29 July 1993
- Court: Israeli Supreme Court
- Decision: Conviction overturned
- Reason: Reasonable doubt over identity as "Ivan the Terrible"
- Original sentence: Death
- Later development: Convicted in Germany in 2011 in a separate Sobibor case; died in 2012 before his appeal was decided.