Useful Enemies

Alfreds Berzins. NA, RG 263, CIA Name Files, second release, Box 12.

Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.

Blatt, Thomas. From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1997.

——. Sobibor: The Forgotten Revolt. Issaquath, WA: H.E.P., 1998. Self- published.

Birnbaum, “Evian: The Most Fateful Conference.”

Brentar. “My Campaign for Justice.”

Davidson, Susie. “The Bush Family—Third Reich Connection: Fact or Fiction?” Jewish Advocate, Boston, April 19, 2001.

The Demjanjuk Trial, Landau, ed.

Hoehne, Heinz. The Order of the Death’s Head. Translated by Richard Barry. London: Penguin, 2000.

Memorandum Decision and Order. United States of America, Plaintiff v. John Demjanjuk, Defendant. No. C77–923, June 23, 1981.

O’Connor, Edward M. “Our Open Society Under Attack by the Despotic State.” Ukrainian Quarterly, Spring 1984.

Rashke, Escape From Sobibor.

Simpson, Blowback.

Stein, George H. The Waffen SS: Hitler’s Elite Guard at War 1939–1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1966.

Sydnor, Charles W., Jr. Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death’s Head Division, 1933– 1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.

Williamson, Gordon. The SS: Hitler’s Instrument of Terror. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1995.

Notes

178 “He withstood much of the hostility”: Battisti’s obituary, CPD, Oct. 20, 1994.

179 John Martin’s obituary, CPD, Dec. 3, 2009. The article quotes Demjanjuk’s son-in-law, Ed Nishnic, as saying: “I love John Martin. Nobody would take this case in the beginning except for John Martin. John went well over and above what any lawyer would do.”

183 Schefler spoke through an interpreter and some of the translation was awkward and confusing. The original German transcript was not available for comparison purposes. Some minor editing was required.

194 Heinrich Schaefer affidavit, Oct. 17, 1983. English translation.

215 Michael Pap’s background is taken from his John Carroll University curriculum vitae and from his pretrial deposition taken by OSI on April 30, 1980. Civil Action No. C77–923.

215 A Michael Pap (born in Tirma, Czechoslovakia, on July 24, 1920) entered the United States at Boston on June 3, 1949, alien registration No. 71644796. This appears to be the same Michael S. Pap who testified at the Demjanjuk trial. Pap’s son Charles did not respond to several requests for information about his father’s date and place of birth, and how his father survived the war.

216 The Reich had passed a law requiring all ethnic Germans: “From: Document Center, US Army Berlin… Subject: Waffen SS in the Balkans…To: US Displaced Persons Commission…Attn: M. M. DeCapua,” Sept. 12, 1951, NA, RG 278, “Displaced Persons Commission Administration File,” Box 72.

216 “Absurdities and contradictions”: See Mark Weber’s introduction to Jerome Brentar’s article, “My Campaign for Justice for John Demjanjuk.” The Institute of Historical Research is considered a Holocaust revisionist organization.

216 An anti-Semitic Holocaust denier: Brentar was dismissed as cochairman of an ethnic coalition supporting George H. W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign, on charges of anti-Semitism. See also: Birnbaum, Brentar, and NYT, Sept. 9, 1999. Until his death in 2006 at age eighty-four, Brentar steadfastly denied those allegations.

216 The radio interview aired on the John McCulloch show at WJW in Cleveland. Quotes come from “Demjanjuk Case Evokes Anti-Semitism,” American Israelite, Jan. 9, 1986.

217 “Forced through”: Simpson, 207.

217 The details of O’Connor’s life before l949 are taken from his thirty-eight-page FBI background investigation file. The investigation was mandated because he was under consideration for a presidential appointment to the Displaced Persons Commission.

217 O’Connor’s FBI file details his deeply Catholic roots: He graduated from St. Joseph’s Collegiate High School in Buffalo; studied at the Jesuit-run Niagara University; received a BS and MA from the University of Notre Dame; served as superintendant of Catholic Charities in Buffalo and as a case consultant for the Buffalo St. Vincent DePaul Society; was a member of the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus; and served as Executive Assistant, War Relief Services, National Catholic Welfare Conference. As a result of his relief work in Europe, O’Connor was decorated by France, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

217 “It is altogether desirable”: “To All State Commissions and Committees and Voluntary Agencies…From: Ugo Carusi, Chairman,” Displaced Persons Commission, December 21, 1950. NA, RG 278, “Administrative Files of the Displaced Persons Commission,” Box 72.

217 “The single most important activist”: This and the description of ABN are from Simpson, 269–70.

217 For background on Alfreds Berzins see Simpson, Blowback; and NA, RG 263, Box 12.

225 “Gave him the temporary rank of”: “Dr. Edward M. O’Connor, 77, Former NSC Staffer, Dies,” NYT, Nov. 27, 1985.

251 “We categorically reject guilt by association”: “Jews, Ukrainians Unite on Human Rights Violation on Ruling of Demjanjuk,” CPD, June 23, 1981.

PART TWO: EPILOGUE

Sources

Feigin, “Karl Linnas: Cold War Politics and OSI Litigation.” The Office of Special Investigations.

——. “Klaus Barbie: The Butcher of Lyon.” The Office of Special Investigations. Holtzman, Who Said It Would Be Easy?

Legge, Jerome S., Jr. “The Karl Linnas Deportation Case, the Office of Special Investigations and American Ethnic Politics.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Spring 2010.

Linnas, Karl. NA, RG 263, CIA Name Files, first release, Box 33; and second release, Box 81.

Ryan, Quiet Neighbors.

Soodla. NA, RG 263, CIA Name Files, first release, Box 49; and second release, Box 124.

Walter, Guy. Hunting Evil: The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice. New York: Broadway Books, 2009.

Notes

252 Murdered between thirty-five hundred: Legge, 31.

253 “Linnas frequently travelled to the execution site”: “From: Moscow… to Secretary of State,” No: 215, October 11, 8 PM, NA, RG 263, first release, Box 33.

253 “Murderers” and “German Fascist handymen”: “Memorandum For: Chief, SR… Via: Chief, SR… Subject: Karl Linnas,” Oct. 13, 1961, NA, RG 263, first release, Box 33. Secret.

253 The CIA files apparently show that Linnas had no CIA connections: “It is believed that LINNAS had no past contact with CIA and there seems to be no need for CIA action in this matter…. CIA files contain only a single reference to LINNAS and this document has been destroyed.” Ibid.

254 “Soodla worked for the CIA in Trieste”: Ibid.