2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Demjanjuk, and others targeted by the OSI (01/12/03)

2002: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Demjanjuk, and others targeted by the OSI

During 2002 a federal judge once again revoked the U.S. citizenship of John Demjanjuk, whom the Office of Special Investigations of the U.S. Justice Department accuses of being a guard at several Nazi death and labor camps. The decision was handed down on February 21. Ed Nishnic, spokesman for the Demjanjuk family, told The Weekly on February 27 that Mr. Demjanjuk would appeal the decision.

Judge Paul Matia of the Federal District Court in Cleveland said there is enough evidence to prove Mr. Demjanjuk was a guard at Nazi death and forced labor camps without eyewitness corroboration. The ruling came a little more than eight months after a seven-day trial in the case that ended on June 8, 2001.

"It is true that judges have ruled against us over the past 25 years, and public opinion has seemed to be against us as well. Nevertheless, we have proven them wrong before and we have been vindicated. I am sure everybody will remember that Mr. Demjanjuk was wrongfully convicted, spent seven years in solitary confinement, and was sentenced to death by hanging due to an erroneous decision by a three-judge panel in Israel. They were wrong, and we were vindicated. We will appeal and will prove them wrong once again," Mr. Nishnic told The Weekly.

Mr. Demjanjuk, 81, whose case was initiated more than 25 years ago, has claimed that he served in the Soviet Army, was captured by German forces and was a prisoner of war. The Demjanjuk case dates back to 1977, when the Ohio resident was first accused of being "Ivan the Terrible." A naturalized U.S. citizen, he lost that status in 1981, when a court stripped him of his citizenship. He was ordered deported and in 1986 was extradited to Israel, where a war crimes trial began a year later.

He was sentenced to death in 1988, but that conviction was overturned on appeal in 1993 by Israel's Supreme Court, and Mr. Demjanjuk returned home to Seven Hills, Ohio. His citizenship was restored in 1998. In that 1998 ruling Judge Matia cited fraud on the part of U.S. government prosecutors and wrote that attorneys of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) "acted with reckless disregard for their duty to the court and their discovery obligations" in failing to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence to the Demjanjuk defense.

The Justice Department filed suit again on May 19, 1999, seeking for the second time to revoke Mr. Demjanjuk's U.S. citizenship on the grounds that he illegally gained entry into the United States and illegally gained U.S. citizenship because he had concealed his service as a camp guard. Federal prosecutors now allege that Mr. Demjanjuk served as a guard at the Sobibor, Majdanek and Flossenberg camps, and that he had been trained at the Trawniki camp.

Mr. Demjanjuk denies that he ever served the Nazis, but admits giving false statements when entering the United States in order to escape repatriation to the Soviet Union. Attorney Michael Tigar said during the trial in 2001 that his client is once again the victim of mistaken identity. The New York Times of February 22 reported that Mr. Tigar predicted Mr. Demjanjuk would be cleared.

Later in the year, on June 16, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced in a press release that it had officially asked Polish judicial authorities to investigate the crimes allegedly committed by Mr. Demjanjuk in Poland during World War II in the Sobibor and Majdanek death camps and the Trawniki training camp. The move was the first step toward his possible extradition to stand trial in Poland. The Wiesenthal Center's request was submitted in Warsaw at a meeting between Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the center's Israeli director and chief Nazi-hunter, and Leon Kieres, head of Poland's National Remembrance Institute.

According to various press reports, Poland was studying the issue. Prof. Kieres told the news media his office is investigating whether it could "put forward charges against Demjanjuk" as a basis for seeking extradition. He explained that the review could take several months.

Commenting on the Wiesenthal Center's latest efforts related to the Demjanjuk case, Mr. Zuroff said, "In view of the recent U.S. decision stripping Ivan Demjanjuk of his American citizenship, which confirmed his service at Polish concentration camps, it would be extremely important for him to be tried for the crimes he committed during World War II." He added, "We, therefore, are urging the Polish authorities to initiate an investigation of this case as quickly as possible with a view toward Demjanjuk's extradition for trial in Poland."

The Plain Dealer quoted Joseph McGinness, a Cleveland lawyer who has represented men suspected of helping the Nazis, as saying that Mr. Demjanjuk has gone through enough. "He has been through hell," said Mr. McGinness, who has not handled the Demjanjuk case. "They're trying to destroy this man, absolutely destroy him, and it's just not right."

* * *

Meanwhile, at least three other Ukrainians were the subjects of legal action by the Office of Special Investigations.

On May 9, the Justice Department asked a federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., to revoke the U.S. citizenship of Jakiw Palij, 78, of Jamaica Heights in Queens for his alleged participation "in acts of persecution against Jewish civilians while serving during World War II as an armed guard at an SS slave-labor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland." The OSI alleges that Mr. Palij trained at the Trawniki training camp and subsequently served at the adjacent slave-labor camp in Trawniki as a guard of Jewish civilian prisoners. The complaint also alleged that Mr. Palij lied when he applied for a U.S. immigration visa, misrepresenting his true wartime activities.

The Daily News reported that Mr. Palij is not accused of any specific atrocities, but that "guards like him forced prisoners to work and prevented them from escaping." The newspaper also noted that Mr. Palij says he was forced to serve with the Nazis. No trial date has yet been set for the case.

Speaking in May, OSI Director Eli Rosenbaum stated: "There will be more [cases] in the next few weeks." He declined to give any more details.

On October 25, a federal immigration court in Manhattan ordered that Mykola Wasylyk, 79, of Ellenville, N.Y., be deported, also on the basis that he participated in the persecution of Jewish civilians during the second world war. The move came after Mr. Wasylyk's U.S. citizenship was revoked in July 2001 by the District Court in Syracuse, N.Y., which found that the defendant should have been ineligible for an immigrant visa and that he had committed fraud when applying for entry into this country by concealing his wartime service. Documents filed by the OSI say that Mr. Wasylyk was trained at the Trawniki camp and then served as an armed guard at the slave-labor camp there. Later, the OSI charges, he served as a guard at the Budzyn labor camp.

Also in October, Mr. Wasylyk penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, appealing for his intervention at "the eleventh hour." He wrote: "I am seeking a reprieve, a waive of deportation, a miracle."

Mr. Wasylyk went on to tell Mr. Ashcroft his story, explaining that he and other young Ukrainian men were rounded up by the Nazis. "They loaded us all into cattle boxcars, took us into Polish territory, and dropped us in the town of Trawniki. ... We were informed that they were going to train us. ... Approximately two months later, they ordered us to walk the perimeter of our camp. We learned that, on the other side, Jewish prisoners were working in a nearby factory, but we never saw them. Soon after, they transferred our unit to Budzyn, about 100 kilometers away. Nearby, behind a wire fence, were civilian people working in a German factory about 2 kilometers from us. We were never allowed any physical interaction with them. Occasionally they used us as watchmen behind the fence outside of the camp ..."

Mr. Wasylyk underscored: "To date, no one has provided any evidence of war criminality against me. I did not join the SS auxiliary forces or voluntarily serve with them in Trawniki or Budzyn. There is no evidence of any incident in which I was involved that could be considered as directed wrongfully at any other individual, whether a forced laborer-prisoner, or any other person."

He concluded his letter by noting:

"After three years of this constant harassment, I am emotionally, mentally and financially drained. I am on various medications for my heart, prostate and double hip replacement surgeries. I have great difficulty walking with a cane and my hearing is poor. I would be pleased to provide you with all of my pertinent medical records should they be required.

"I have nothing to hide and everything to lose.

"In closing, I am appealing to you, as one human being to another. Please do not allow our justice system to throw an innocent old man out of the only country he has called home for half a century. I believe in justice and I trust that somehow it will be served to me fairly when all is said and done. Any intervention on my behalf would be greatly appreciated."

At year's end, on December 26, federal officials filed papers at the District Court in Brooklyn to denaturalize Jaroslaw Bilaniuk, 79, of Douglaston, Queens. Once again the Trawniki camp is at the heart of the matter, as the OSI alleges that Mr. Bilaniuk, after being trained at Trawniki, was a guard at the adjacent forced labor camp and that he concealed that activity in order to gain entry into the United States.

The Bilaniuk family issued a statement to the press on December 27, stating that Mr. Bilaniuk "is innocent and he was not involved in any persecution of any people during World War II."

"Our family and relatives were also victims of the Nazi regime and sheltered Jews in Ukraine risking the penalty of death. Unfortunately, our husband and father is the victim of overzealous prosecutors working to justify their existence by superimposing the crimes of the Nazi regime on an innocent, law-abiding citizen of the United States of America. The first step of a smear campaign and vilification in the press is taking place now to arouse the emotions of the reader."

"Our father raised his sons to believe in American ideals and we are confident that justice will be served and our father vindicated, despite the fact that this same OSI office was found to have committed fraud with its 'win at any cost' attitude by a U.S Circuit Court of Appeals," the family noted.

According to the Department of Justice, 71 individuals who assisted in Nazi persecution have been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 57 have been removed from the United States since the OSI began operations in 1979. In addition, more than 150 individuals who sought to enter the United States in recent years have been blocked from doing so as a result of the OSI's "Watch List" program. Some 160 persons remain under investigation by the OSI.

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