John Demjanjuk and America's Open-Door Policy For Nazi War Criminals
October 29, 2012
WWII isn’t over for everyone—in May 2011, John Demjanjuk, a native of Ukraine and “former American citizen,” was convicted of war crimes for his role as a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp. Rashke (Escape from Sobibor) uses Demjanjuk’s story to explore the troubling implications of U.S. immigration patterns after WWII; the author contends that the United States knowingly accepted Nazis while simultaneously denying entry to Holocaust survivors, a trend motivated by a political agenda concerned with monitoring Europe in the postwar period and during the cold war. As evidenced by the particulars of Demjanjuk’s case—which included numerous trials in various countries, possibly forged identity papers, and extradition deadlock—the narrative is riddled with political intrigue. While the immediate ethical and political ramifications of his argument are fascinating, one of the most interesting aspects of Rashke’s investigation is how it complicates the idea of a survivor: was Demjanjuk, who lived a quiet life in Cleveland following the war, also a survivor of the Nazis, different from the men and women whose killings he oversaw only by degree? The answer, as Rashke points out, requires untangling “historical forces, moral behaviors, legal issues,” and more, and it’s a riveting read. B&w photos.
Starred review from November 15, 2012
After World War II, why did the United States admit many high-level ex-Nazis for a variety of purposes (the space program, anti-Soviet espionage) but relentlessly pursue prison guard John Demjanjuk? Rashke (Trust Me, 2001, etc.) follows the bizarre, jagged trajectory of the various trials of Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker from Cleveland whose tangled experiences in the war sent him from courtrooms and jails in Ohio to Tel Aviv to Munich, sites where he was variously accused of being the heinous Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka (a charge ultimately dropped) to serving as a guard at the Sobibor death camp, a charge of which he was ultimately convicted when he was 90 and dying. But Rashke, whose research is prodigious, has a much busier agenda than just the Demjanjuk case. He also describes the numerous other cases of ex-Nazis brought to America, many quietly under the aegis of the FBI, the State Department or the CIA, war criminals (in many cases) who escaped prosecution because of their usefulness in the U.S. Some were high profile (rocket scientist Werner von Braun at NASA); others flew totally below the radar until Soviet and American archives opened decades later. Throughout, Rashke raises moral questions (is it conscionable to employ ex-Nazis?) and draws distinctions (what's the difference between working for and working with an occupying force?). His accounts of Demjanjuk's various legal proceedings are swift but also enriched by much relevant quoted testimony. The author also explores the profound passions of all involved--from the families of those whose relatives suffered and died in the camps to the Demjanjuk family and their Ukrainian-American neighbors who never believed the accusations. A richly researched, gripping narrative about war, suffering, survival, corruption, injustice and morality.
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May 15, 2013
To his supporters, John Demjanjuk was an innocent Ukrainian anti-communist who was the victim of a Soviet plot. The accusation that a former Nazi death-camp prison guard was able to immigrate to America and become a citizen raised troubling questions for others. Rashke (Escape from Sobibor) demonstrates that, far from being an isolated case, Demjanjuk was one of thousands of former Nazis and Nazi collaborators who were admitted into the United States; some slipped through thanks to chaotic immigration systems, while many others were admitted because they were useful intelligence assets against the communists. According to Rashke, Demjanjuk was not useful to the American establishment, being merely a "colorless death camp guard," and as such could easily be left to fend for himself when justice finally caught up to him. VERDICT Based on a variety of archival sources and interviews, this book is at its best when detailing the complex, and sometimes convoluted, details of Demjanjuk's various war crimes trials. Rashke's explication of Cold War politics, and the notion that an active conspiracy shielded some war criminals and let others, like Demjanjuk, be sacrificed is less convincing.--Frederic Krome, Univ. of Cincinnati Clermont Coll.
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