A former U.S. Justice Department attorney testified at a special hearing that he did not believe John Demjanjuk was “Ivan the Terrible,” a guard accused of committing atrocities at the Treblinka concentration camp during World War II.
Testifying at hearings last week into possible misconduct by Justice Department officials in the 1986 extradition of Demjanjuk to Israel, John Parker said he had expressed his hesitation to others.
“When I left the department, I did not believe Demjanjuk was `Ivan the Terrible,'” said Parker, a trial attorney for the Office of Special Investigations from 1978 to 1980.
The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, 72, a retired Cleveland-area autoworker, was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in June 1981. He was deported in 1986 to Israel, where he was convicted in 1988 of crimes against the Jewish people and sentenced to death. He has been held in solitary confinement since 1986.
The Israeli Supreme Court, presented with new evidence of possible mistaken identity, is expected to rule soon on the appeal.
Parker testified in Nashville before U.S. District Judge Thomas Wiseman Jr., who is sitting as a special master in the case at the behest of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which handled the original extradition hearings.
The case was reopened last summer when new evidence surfaced, raising the possibility that government attorneys may have withheld information during the extradition proceedings.
Parker testified Nov. 12 that he had expressed doubts at the time over discrepancies in physical descriptions of “Ivan the Terrible.”
Some witnesses said he was about 5 feet 8 inches tall, yet Demjanjuk is 6 feet 1 inch tall. Other witnesses placed him at Sobibor, another concentration camp, during part of the time he was supposed to be at Treblinka.
“There were inconsistencies among the people who were there,” Parker testified.
Another puzzling aspect of the case was the omission of Demjanjuk’s name from a Polish list of 43 Treblinka guards.
Parker also expressed concern over photo identifications from Israel. People who had not seen “Ivan the Terrible” in 35 to 40 years were identifying photos of Demjanjuk as Ivan.
“The Sobibor evidence was going this way and the Treblinka evidence was going that way,” Parker testified. “It was simply a matter of thinking that if this (Demjanjuk) was a person who had been so notorious, why weren’t people mentioning him?”
There is inconclusive evidence that “Ivan the Terrible” may have been another man, Ivan Marchenko, who has not been seen since 1945.
Asked by Demjanjuk’s lawyer, Michael Tigar, if he had ever shared his doubts with Demjanjuk’s counsel in 1979-80, Parker replied, “No.”
The judge then asked Parker if he knew the law required the department to turn over all evidence to the defense attorney. Parker said he understood the attorney had to ask for specific information.
There was “a whole lot” the defense attorney had not asked for, Parker said.
The “law required you to come forward and give information even if the wrong question is asked,” Wiseman explained.
Wiseman referred to prior cases against alleged war criminals that the Justice Department lost. He asked Parker if there was “a particular zeal to win one and not lose another one.”
In light of the other cases, Parker said, the OSI had to be very careful in preparing its evidence, especially with photo identifications.
“We had to put a lot of effort into making sure that we did a good job establishing what we were attempting to prove and have the right person,” Parker said.
In testimony Nov. 13, Martin Mendelsohn, another Justice Department attorney, denied withholding documents that might have been helpful to Demjanjuk’s defense. He said the department only gave the defense papers that were specifically requested.
The hearings are tentatively scheduled to continue here Dec. 21, with testimony from other former Justice Department attorneys.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
