War criminal, and victim

John Demjanjuk: a henchman to mass murderers; a willing accomplice in the extermination of Jews at the Sobibor death camp; a part of the old Nazi power structure.

The court in Munich believes it has proven these statements beyond reasonable doubt, hence its five-year prison sentence - since waived on account of 91-year-old Demjanjuk's age and health.

Demjanjuk was in a murderous place at a questionable time. The court effectively ruled that his presence at Sobibor incriminated him, making him a cog in a machine of genocide. Following this logic, it was not really necessary to retroactively prove any specific crime.

Is that a fair ruling? Truth be told, it was more likely one born out of desperation - a way out of an excruciating trial. Despite the verdict, doubts endure.

But as cynical as this may sound, this verdict had to suffice. After all, there are no living witnesses who saw Demjanjuk in Sobibor, and no hard evidence for concrete misdemeanors. The only truly valuable piece of evidence was a dog-eared ID card from the 1940s.

Of course there are reams of historical documents, but they rarely suffice to reconstruct the acts of one individual.

Atonement for past cases

The past 70 years have, however, shed light on a different type of failure. For years here in Germany war criminals were forgiven, the greatest lenience was displayed even to people who had ordered and executed the most atrocious crimes.

Those eyewitnesses who survived at the time are now mostly dead and many of those responsible - including people from the Sobibor death camp - got off scot-free. And, in part, it seemed as if this very diligent and meticulous court in Munich was trying particularly hard to atone for some of its past shortcomings.

Now, though, the unease is beginning to spread, for it is a cog in the machine that was punished. A young man who barely survived the terror of Stalin; a then 23-year-old prisoner, rotting in a German POW camp, who decided - in a bid to dodge his otherwise certain death - to serve Hitler's SS.

Did Demjanjuk really have a chance - as the judges ruled - to pull himself out of this murderous machine? Was he really free to flee, all alone in occupied Poland in the middle of World War II?

Yet simultaneously, it's actually quite difficult to feel much sympathy for this 91-year-old man. He steadfastly refused to play any part in his own trial; on every day in court he demonstrated his disinterest, or even contempt, for the proceedings. Still Demjanjuk is not just a criminal being punished, he is also a victim of political and historical circumstances beyond his control.

Precedent-setting verdict

This was the first time that a foreign national was convicted on German soil for crimes committed in occupied Eastern Europe during the war. The judges have not just stepped into unchartered territory here, they have opened Pandora's proverbial box.

There were many of these foreign assistants who helped the Nazis, called the foot soldiers of genocide by some historians. And not all of them were forced to flog captive Jews or to lead them to the gas chambers. Some, harboring racist sentiments of their own, did so gladly. This is a topic that has been largely taboo up until now, and not just in Germany.

For the relatives of those who were murdered - who sat in the courtroom day after day, often shedding tears of sadness and fury - this verdict is almost a form of compensation: an overdue atonement, a little bit of respect for the people who were close to them and who underwent unimaginable horrors.

But there's another message, too. Demjanjuk's trial shows today's mass murderers that there's no escape, that no such criminal is safe anymore, even years after the event. In short, some things are neither forgiven, nor forgotten.

Whatever this trial was, it definitely was not the last-ever case against an alleged Nazi war criminal. The serious crimes prosecution office in Dortmund is still processing 18 preliminary investigations - proving that the story's not over yet.

Author: Cornelia Rabitz / msh
Editor: Martin Kuebler