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

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 389
out being authorized to do so and in spite of a camp closure. Even
though incriminating evidence from Soviet sources must a priori be
viewed critically, we cannot exclude that Demjanjuk was actually at
Majdanek. His stay at Flossenbürg, according to judge Matia, is confirmed
by a German document from that camp.
To the extent that these documents are indeed authentic – something
we are not in a position to judge, except for the Trawniki ID card shown
decades ago as having been forged – Demjanjuk would indeed have misinformed
the U.S. agencies before his emigration by hiding his activity
as a guard. If he had owned up to this, not only would his application
for a U.S. visa have been rejected, but he would also have run the risk
of being extradited to the Soviet Union, which would have been tantamount
to a death sentence. It is quite possible that Demjanjuk did not
tell the truth during his interrogations by the American judicial authorities
in 1976. Who would want to blame him for that? We must not forget
that he was still running the risk of being extradited to the Soviet
Union. That this fear was not at all unfounded is shown by the case of
another Ukrainian, Fyodor Fedorenko, who was also accused by the
Soviets of having served as a guard at Treblinka. Fedorenko was extradited
to the USSR by the USA in 1984, sentenced to death in 1986, and
executed by shooting a year later. 1135
Once he had been stripped of his U.S. citizenship one more time, the
U.S. authorities decided in 2005 that he was to be deported to Ukraine,
to Poland, or to Germany. While both the Ukrainian and the Polish authorities
refused to receive him (a sure indication that they did not have
the slightest evidence to prosecute him for any crimes committed during
the war!), Germany demanded his extradition in 2008, which was eventually
accepted.
11.5. The Run-Up to the Munich Trial
The trial of John Demjanjuk opened in Munich at the end of November
2009. In the weeks before it began, some sobering remarks
were made in Germany. A press release of 17 November by the Südwestrundfunk
said: 1136
1135 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Fedorenko
1136 “Der Fall Ivan Demjanjuk,” Südwestrundfunk, 17 Nov. 2009
(www.swr.de/presseservice/archiv/2009/-