“Government’s Exhibit 6 indicates this Iwan Demjanjuk, who was trained at Trawniki, has a scar on his back,” Horrigan said. “Do you have a scar on your back?”
“Yes.”
“It indicates that this Iwan’s father’s name was Nikolai. Was your father’s name Nikolai?”
“In Russian, and Mikolai in Ukrainian.”
“This Trawniki training card indicates that this Iwan Demjanjuk was born in April… April 3, 1920. When were you born?”
“The same.”
“And this indicates that this Iwan Demjanjuk was born in Dubmacharenzi.”
“In Dubovi Marcharentzi [Makharintsi],” Demjanjuk corrected.
“Do you see a signature there?”
“Yes.”
“In what language is the signature?”
“Ukrainian,” Demjanjuk said.
“That would be in the Cyrillic alphabet, would it not?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
“Demjanjuk.”
“Is this your signature?”
“I don’t think so,” Demjanjuk said. “I never wrote the [JA and JU] the way it is written here.”
“The man in the picture there, is he in a Russian uniform?” Horrigan asked.
“I don’t know what kind of uniform this is.”
“It’s not a Russian uniform, though, is it?”
“I cannot say because it is dark and it isn’t clear,” Demjanjuk said.
“You remember wearing such a uniform?”
“Never,” Demjanjuk said.
Martin used his re-direct to try to repair some of the damage Horrigan had inflicted. He began with Vlasov’s army.
“Did you at any time, or did the unit at any time… do any fighting at all?”
“None.”
“Had you
“The Germans sent me,” Demjanjuk said.
“Would you tell us what year it was when you were at Oelberg and you had the tattoo removed?”
“Nineteen forty-five.”
“Had you at that time, any plans of coming to the United States?”
“At that time, no one considered such a possibility,” Demjanjuk said. “No one knew anything about immigration then.”
“At that time, had you ever heard of the IRO or Displaced Persons Commission?”
“We didn’t hear anything.”
Martin showed Demjanjuk the photo exhibit of the Trawniki card once again.
“Is that your signature?”
“It is
Martin held up the exhibit for Battisti to see.
“There should also be an apostrophe after the
Demjanjuk’s testimony contained one important and unexpected piece of new information. After claiming for five years in pretrial depositions and interrogatories that he could not remember the name of the Polish POW camp where he had been incarcerated from July 1942
Chelm was the heart of his alibi. How could he have been at Trawniki, Treblinka, and Sobibor if he was penned behind barbed wire in the Chelm POW camp? The admission caught the government by surprise. Moscowitz recalled historian Earl Ziemke as a rebuttal witness.
Ziemke testified that there was a POW camp in Chelm, Poland, in 1942.
“Is it possible for the defendant, or any other prisoner of war of the Germans, to have been in a prisoner of war camp in Chelm, Poland, in
“No.”
“Why is that
“Because Chelm, Poland, was at that time in Soviet hands,” Ziemke said.
“When did the Soviets… push the Germans out of Chelm?”
“Probably on the twentieth of July, 1944.”
It was the defense’s turn to be caught by surprise. It had no one prepared and ready to refute Ziemke.
Before closing the defense’s case, Martin addressed the court in obvious embarrassment. He had failed to find a single defense expert to study and test the Trawniki card. Theoretically, the defense did not have to prove that the card was a forgery. All it had to do was create reasonable doubt that the card was a fake. Practically, however, given the strong prosecution testimony of Gideon Epstein, the only effective way to create that doubt was to have a second expert witness refute Epstein’s findings.
The defense had had ample time to find its own experts. The prosecution had made photos of the card available to the defense months before the trial opened. During the trial, the Soviet embassy in Washington had offered the prosecution and the defense an opportunity to examine the
“I would like to say [this] for the record, lest the court feel we were not there in good faith,” Martin said. “I contacted experts. The one in New York wanted the document flown to New York to the Russian embassy there. The one in Washington… wanted the document at least two days in order to examine it. And [a third one] works for the CIA, and because the government was part of this lawsuit could not become involved….For those reasons, I wanted the court to know we did go and make a conscientious attempt.”
Unfortunately for John Demjanjuk, the defense was forced to close without ever having its own expert refute the conclusion of the prosecution’s expert, Gideon Epstein, that the Trawniki card was authentic.
The following Sunday, the Ukrainian community celebrated with the Demjanjuk family at St. Vladimir’s. They celebrated because they believed that John Demjanjuk would win. And they celebrated their homeland.
After the church service, 450 well-wishers filled the social hall and opened their pocketbooks wider. They rocked the hall with “Nimohayalita,” the traditional Ukrainian song of cheer:
A Ukrainian folk choir sang golden oldies, bringing back memories of a better time and hope for a future independent Ukraine. A Parma high school student played the bandura—a lute-like folk instrument. A young girl dressed in a traditional Ukrainian blouse and skirt presented John and Vera Demjanjuk with a bouquet of roses, and
