A German prosecutor insists there is clear evidence John Demjanjuk served as a guard at the Nazis’ Sobibor death camp, recommending in closing arguments that the retired U.S. autoworker be convicted of accessory to murder and sentenced to six years in prison.
Hans-Joachim Lutz told the Munich state court this week that even though there is no evidence Demjanjuk committed a specific crime, he should be found guilty as accessory because, as a guard, he was part of the Nazis’ machinery of death.
“Concrete killings are not known, but that is not necessary in view of the routine, industrial way the killing was carried out,” Lutz told the panel of judges who have been hearing the case since November 2009.
Ukraine-born Demjanjuk, 90, denies having ever served as a Nazi death camp guard, saying he was a soldier in the Red Army who was captured by the Germans and then spent most of the war as a prisoner himself.
But the prosecution argues that after his capture he volunteered to serve the Germans as a guard.
“The accused participated willingly in the killing of the Jews out of racist, ideological reasons,” Lutz told the court.
During the proceedings Demjanjuk lay in bed, as he has for most of the trial, wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled down low, listening closely to his Ukrainian interpreter as Lutz detailed his case to the court.
A verdict is not expected until May. — ap