From Jerusalem to Munich: The Case of Ivan Demjanjuk and the Prosecution of Nazis in Israel and Germany

Twenty five years after the Eichmann trial, the Demjanjuk trial was the last case in which the Israeli prosecution indicted a Nazi war criminal. In 1988, Demjanjuk was convicted by the Jerusalem District court of being "Ivan the Terrible" from Treblinka extermination camp and sentenced to death. Five years later, The Israeli Supreme court overturned the conviction due to reasonable doubt. Over a decade after his acquittal, he was convicted in Germany on charges of being an anonymous guard in Sobibor extermination camp.

In this study, I will propose a number of parameters for comparing the Israeli and German criminal proceedings in the Demjanjuk affair and will show that their differences are the result of national narratives regarding the legal engagement with the Holocaust. First, the legislation under which Demjanjuk was prosecuted and its effects on the outcome of the proceedings, regarding the possibility of obtaining a conviction and the level of punishment. Second, the place of survivors` testimonies in court, and the use made of them in the verdict, which shows a legal use of historical narratives. Third, the impact of the results of these proceedings on other potential Nazi trials. While the Israeli Demjanjuk trial sealed the saga of prosecution of Nazi war criminals in Israel, the precedent set in the German Demjanjuk trial opened the door to new legal proceedings. In-depth study and comparison between these proceedings could therefore yield important conclusions regarding the issue of dealing with the collective memory of the Holocaust within the courtroom.