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The Demjanjuk Affair: The Rise and Fall of a Show Trial
Told for the first time, this is the full story of the infamous show-trial of John Demjanjuk, falsely accused of being one of the most monstrous of Nazi war criminals, Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka. The trial of an alleged Nazi naturally arouses strong emotions, and the pressure to convict can become overwhelming. In the case of John Demjanjuk, extradited to Israel from the United States in 1986 and held for over seven years before finally being cleared, only the dogged determination and dedication of his lawyer prevented an appalling miscarriage of justice.
379 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 1994
About the author
Yoram Sheftel
5 books3 followersYoram Sheftel (born January 15, 1949) is an Israeli Jewish lawyer who once represented accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk in the late 1980s.
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December 20, 2019
It all started with me viewing a documentary about the trial of John Demjanjuk on Netflix. I had been fascinated by the life of the man since first hearing of him on the nightly newscasts in the 1980s And I though this series would provide me with the final word. Unfortunately the documentary provided more questions than answers so I decided to go to the horse’s mouth. The Demjanjuk Affair, published in 1994, was written by Yoram Sheftel, Demjanjuk’s Israeli lawyer for his initial trial and appeal in Israel.
There so doubt that Sheftel is into self-promotion and a bit of a showmen, but he actively sought to become Demjanjuk’s defense lawyer for pure reasons. He thought the trial was a show trial and thus a travesty of the whole judicial process – as he stated “the theatre was not rented to provide live TV coverage of an acquittal”. So he took on the task.
It did not prove to be an easy job. The three justices where hostile to him as were the press and general population of Israel. Death threats became common place. Later on a former justice who signed onto the defense for the appeal committed suicide and Sheftel was assaulted , having acid thrown in his face, at the man’s funeral. Demjanjuk’s family, concerned for his safety pleaded with him to relocate to the U.S. or Canada at least until the appeal was over. But Sheftel refused to give his detractors the satisfaction. He also had to walk a fine line – some of Demjanjuk’s supporters were very right wing, some were anti-Semitic and some sounded like out and out Nazis – so, speaking to various groups to raise funds for the defense, Sheftel had to play down the deficiencies of the Israeli justice system that we was fighting against.
Sheftel’s defense was simple. The charge was that Demjanjuk was a notorious death guard Ivan Marchenko (aka Ivan the Terrible) and his basic argument was that this identification was in error. The defense did not dispute any other basic facts of the case and many times raised objections in court pointing out that the heart-rending testimony of the death camp survivors were unnecessary because none of these fact were in dispute. These objections were overruled proving his point that this was a show trial.
If you want you know the details of court proceedings a Netflix’s documentary won’t do it for you . You need to read a book about it. This book covers it all, The disastrous work and firing of Mark O’Connor, the unfortunate testimony of John Denmjanjuk (in Israel the defendant not taking the standing is often seen as an admission of guilt), the expert witnesses Sheftel sought out in bolster his case and his travels to Poland and Ukraine to dig out facts on the real Ivan Marchenko.
Sheftel is tight-lipped on other things. John Demjanjuk seems to be a buffoon and lacking in basic intelligence and but this just slips out in offhand comments like his remark that his wife Vera was “less limited” than him. Also he has no comment on what exactly Demjanjuk did during the war, his point being that Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel and put on trial for being Ivan the Terrible. If he’s not Ivan the Terrible they have no case. Of course after his acquittal Germany would explore this issue and Demjanjuk’s woes would continue to his death.
All in all an pretty good ride – my only complaint would be the lack of an index – the book has quite a cast of characters and I had problems keeping them straight.
There so doubt that Sheftel is into self-promotion and a bit of a showmen, but he actively sought to become Demjanjuk’s defense lawyer for pure reasons. He thought the trial was a show trial and thus a travesty of the whole judicial process – as he stated “the theatre was not rented to provide live TV coverage of an acquittal”. So he took on the task.
It did not prove to be an easy job. The three justices where hostile to him as were the press and general population of Israel. Death threats became common place. Later on a former justice who signed onto the defense for the appeal committed suicide and Sheftel was assaulted , having acid thrown in his face, at the man’s funeral. Demjanjuk’s family, concerned for his safety pleaded with him to relocate to the U.S. or Canada at least until the appeal was over. But Sheftel refused to give his detractors the satisfaction. He also had to walk a fine line – some of Demjanjuk’s supporters were very right wing, some were anti-Semitic and some sounded like out and out Nazis – so, speaking to various groups to raise funds for the defense, Sheftel had to play down the deficiencies of the Israeli justice system that we was fighting against.
Sheftel’s defense was simple. The charge was that Demjanjuk was a notorious death guard Ivan Marchenko (aka Ivan the Terrible) and his basic argument was that this identification was in error. The defense did not dispute any other basic facts of the case and many times raised objections in court pointing out that the heart-rending testimony of the death camp survivors were unnecessary because none of these fact were in dispute. These objections were overruled proving his point that this was a show trial.
If you want you know the details of court proceedings a Netflix’s documentary won’t do it for you . You need to read a book about it. This book covers it all, The disastrous work and firing of Mark O’Connor, the unfortunate testimony of John Denmjanjuk (in Israel the defendant not taking the standing is often seen as an admission of guilt), the expert witnesses Sheftel sought out in bolster his case and his travels to Poland and Ukraine to dig out facts on the real Ivan Marchenko.
Sheftel is tight-lipped on other things. John Demjanjuk seems to be a buffoon and lacking in basic intelligence and but this just slips out in offhand comments like his remark that his wife Vera was “less limited” than him. Also he has no comment on what exactly Demjanjuk did during the war, his point being that Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel and put on trial for being Ivan the Terrible. If he’s not Ivan the Terrible they have no case. Of course after his acquittal Germany would explore this issue and Demjanjuk’s woes would continue to his death.
All in all an pretty good ride – my only complaint would be the lack of an index – the book has quite a cast of characters and I had problems keeping them straight.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review