Demjanjuk Convicted of as an Accessory to 28,060 Murders at Sobibor

[CountArach]

Well, the Nazi hunters have bagged another one, this one a Russian POW pressed into German service for fear of his life and accused of... well... nothing in particular.

I'm not sure what to think about this case but I feel that this is a misrepresentation of the article. Pressed into service seems to be something of an overstatement:

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk was a Soviet Red Army soldier captured by the Germans in Crimea in 1942. He is accused of then agreeing to serve as a "Wachmann," or guard, the lowest rank of the "Hilfswillige," former POWs who were subordinate to German SS men.
[...]
Demjanjuk has always maintained he was a victim of the Nazis — first wounded as a Soviet soldier and then captured and held as a prisoner of war under brutal conditions before joining the Vlasov Army, a force of anti-communist Soviet POWs and others that was formed to fight with the Germans against the Soviets in the final months of the war.

Prosecutors said that after his capture, the evidence shows Demjanjuk agreed to serve the German SS and was posted to Sobibor.

So "pressed into service" seems to misrepresent the fact that he was clearly sympathetic to the Nazis.

[Fragony]

So "pressed into service" seems to misrepresent the fact that he was clearly sympathetic to the Nazis.

Or very unsympathetic to the communists, happened all the time

[PanzerJaeger]

So "pressed into service" seems to misrepresent the fact that he was clearly sympathetic to the Nazis.

That is not even remotely accurate. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the plight of Russian prisoners of war during WW2. Working with the Nazis was often their only chance at survival. The fact that he served under them says nothing about his sympathies. In fact, the Vlasov Army turned against the Germans as soon as they could.

I do not know if Ivan Demjanjuk from Cleveland was a guard in a concentration camp. He denies such involvement. But if he was, who among us would have behaved differently if confronted with imminent death by starvation? Might any of us have chosen to extend our lives for a few more months or weeks? We do not blame Jewish policemen in the Jewish ghettos who herded their own people to the trains taking them to the concentration camps of Auschwitz or Treblinka.

...

I cannot resist the thought that this affair with Ivan Demjanjuk has nothing to do with justice, his guilt or even his identity. It is a propaganda tool that serves a particular group of Justice Department officials desperately trying to prove that their office is still needed. They have a "pressing problem"! Such people as Demjanjuk are just dying off.

[Strike For The South]

Petty, Chilidish, and irrelavant

But this is what happens when you lose the game

Death camps were a bad choice

Although granted their is something to be said for the fact that the law will be enfoced. So kudos I suppose