John Demjanjuk, a retired US engine mechanic convicted for his role in killing 28,000 Jews as a guard at a Nazi death camp during the second World War, died on Saturday aged 91.
Once top of the Nazi- hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s list of most wanted Nazi criminals, Ukrainian- born Demjanjuk denied the charges against him, saying he was drafted into the Soviet army in 1941 and then taken prisoner by the Germans.
A Munich court convicted Demjanjuk in May 2011 of helping to kill the Jews at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi- occupied Poland. He was sentenced to five years in prison but freed because of his age. He died on Saturday at the care home near Rosenheim, south of Munich, where he had been living, Bavarian police said.
His son John Demjanjuk jnr said in a statement from his home in Ohio: “History will show Germany shamefully used him as a scapegoat to blame helpless Ukrainian POWs for the deeds of Nazi Germany.” – (Reuters)