John Demjanjuk Convicted for Sobibor War Crimes

John Demjanjuk Found Guilty of Nazi War Crimes

91-year-old retired auto worker John Demjanjuk was found guilty of participating in Nazi war crimes, and was sentenced to five years in prison. Demjanjuk is not expected to survive the prison term.

• Sobibor Guard John Demjanjuk Charged with War Crimes
• Demjanjuk Deemed Fit to Stand Trial
  

The prosecution has presented no specific evidence that Demjanjuk committed a particular murder, but based its case on the premise that his presence at Sobibor was enough to charge him with being an accessory to mass murder. It is the first time this legal argument has been used in German courts.

John Demjanjuk is the lowest-level Nazi to face a war crimes trial, and he may be one of the last, as surviving perpetrators, victims and witnesses of World War II war crimes are getting thin on the ground.

The defense argued that the ID card which identified Demjanjuk as an SS officer was a KGB forgery intended to smear the anti-Soviet Demjanjuk, who had emigrated to the US after spending much of WWII as a POW.