Sobibor - Holocaust Propaganda And Reality - Unity of Nobility ...

388 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
“Demjanjuk was put on trial again in 2001, and on February 21,
2002, Matia ruled that Demjanjuk had not produced any credible
evidence of his whereabouts during the war and that the Justice
Department had proved its case against him.
On April 30, 2004, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled that Demjanjuk could be again stripped of
his U.S. citizenship because the Justice Department had presented
‘clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence’ of Demjanjuk’s
service in Nazi death camps. The United States Supreme Court
declined to hear his appeal in November 2004.”
In his 2002 decision judge Paul Matia had written: 1134
“In serving at Sobibór, the defendant contributed to the process
by which thousands of Jews were murdered by asphyxiation with
carbon monoxide.”
We cannot decide whether Demjanjuk did serve at Sobibór or other
NS camps. What can be said, though, is that in 1948, when demanding
his recognition as a political refugee in Germany, and again during the
interrogations preceding his extradition from the U.S. to Israel, he made
certain unbelievable and contradictory statements. When he applied in
1948 for the status of a political refugee, he declared to have worked
from 1937 (!) until January of 1943 as a farmer in “Sobibór, Chem,
Poland” and to have later been employed as a worker at Pillau, Danzig,
and Munich until the end of the war. 1134 As there was indeed a farm
near Sobibór, it is theoretically possible for Demjanjuk to have worked
there (although certainly not from 1937), but it does not strike us as
very likely. If, however, he was indeed assigned to the camp at Sobibór
as a guard, this is a strong argument against the view of this camp as an
“extermination centre,” for in that case Demjanjuk would certainly have
been bright enough not to mention this place in his application at all.
In his sentence of 2002, judge Matia claimed to possess documentary
evidence proving that Demjanjuk had been stationed not only at Sobibór,
but at Majdanek and Flossenbürg as well. 1134 Regarding Sobibór,
as far as we know, there is no evidence other than the forged ID card issued
at the Trawniki training camp. Judge Matia claims that documentary
evidence was found in a Lithuanian archive proving Demjanjuk’s
presence as a guard at Majdanek in January of 1943. He is said to have
been punished at the time for having left the camp to go shopping with-
1134 Judge Paul Matia, United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division,
US of America versus John Demjanjuk. “Findings of Fact” (2002).