TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

Chapter V: Treblinka Trials 169
Professor Dr. L. In his persuasive expert report, Professor Dr. L. has
stated, among other things, the following:
From the photographs of Barry shown to him by the Court of Assizes,
he notes that this was not a purebred St. Bernard but a mixed-breed dog,
which clearly predominantly showed the traits of a St. Bernard. Mixedbreed
dogs are much more sensitive than purebred animals. If they have
become attached to a master and have entered into a so-called dog-master
bond, they would virtually anticipate their master’s wishes; for a dog is
‘the reflection of the subconscious of its master,’ and that is especially true
of mixed-breed dogs. […] After the convincing exposition of Professor Dr.
L., there therefore exists no logical contradiction between the findings that
Barry on the one hand was dangerous when he was incited to attack Jews
by Franz, and that on the other hand, during the absence of Franz, […] he
was indolent, good-tempered, and harmless on the camp property.”
Adalbert Rückerl had this comment concerning these sagacious findings: 496
“The [….] statements give an idea of what effort and care the judges
expended in resolving individual details of the crime.”
Gegen Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. (German proverb)
Even the Gods struggle in vain against stupidity.
3. The Demjanjuk Trial in Jerusalem
On April 25, 1988, John (Ivan) Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian extradited two
years earlier from the United States to Israel, was sentenced to death by hanging
in Jerusalem. The court, consisting of the judges Dov Levin, Zvi A. Tal,
and Dalia Dorner, had found him guilty of the murder of several hundred
thousand persons. He had been – so the verdict claimed – the sadistic Ukrainian
guard who had been called ‘Ivan the Terrible’ and who had operated the
gas chambers of Treblinka. But this wasn’t enough: according to the Israeli
judges, Demjanjuk had hardly been satisfied with gassing the Jews, but tortured
many of his victims beforehand in an outrageously bestial fashion. In its
verdict, the Jerusalem court quoted the former Treblinka prisoner Pinchas Epstein,
who ‘recognized’ his former tormentor in Demjanjuk during the trial, as
follows: 497
“I saw this man of vast proportions, well built, solid, and he was operating
the motor, he was performing some action and pressing on something
which activated the motor. After that, we would wait for twenty minutes to
496 Ibid., p. 234.
497 Criminal Case No. 373/86, State of Israel vs. Ivan (John) Demjanjuk, Verdict, pp. 180, 182f.
We heartily thank Dr. Miroslav Dragan for having made this important document available
to us.