TR. 15 - Protocols and historical documentation from the Demjanjuk Trial, 1986-1988

TR. 15 - Protocols and historical documentation from the Demjanjuk Trial, 1986-1988 In 1987, Ivan Demjanjuk was placed on trial in Jerusalem in accordance with the Nazi and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law. Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian who immigrated to the United States and was extradited to Israel, was accused of serving as a guard in the Treblinka extermination camp during the war. The inmates of the camp referred to him as "Ivan the Terrible". The Jerusalem District Court, in session with the special panel of Judges Dov Levin, Tzvi Tal and Dalia Dorner, found Demjanjuk guilty and sentenced him to death. Demjanjuk appealed the verdict, and in 1993, he was acquitted because the charge had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. At the same time, the court rejected his claim that he had not served as a collaborator with the Germans during the war. Demjanjuk was deported to the United States and retried there. In 2009 Demjanjuk was extradited to Germany and tried. He was found guilty of assistance in the murder of over 28,000 Jews when he served as a Vachman (guard) in the Sobibor camp, and sentenced to five years in prison. There are two groups of documentation in the Record Group: A. Official protocols of the trial in Hebrew and in translation into English (Files 1-50). This documentation was handed over to Yad Vashem Archives by the Israeli Ministry of Justice. B. Historical documentation which served the prosecution at the Demjanjuk Trial (Files 51-56). The documentation was transferred to the Yad Vashem Archives by the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem.