FSU Politics/Current Events V

Apparently they determined earlier that it was probably another Ukrainian, not Demjanjuk. My main beef with this is that Demjanjuk's defenders claim that his accusers were anxious to get closure and simply wanted to believe.

 

You're confusing two things, I think.

1. Earlier accusations (that were reversed by the Israeli Supreme Court) were that Demyanyuk was the famed "Ivan the Terrible". He wasn't. It was another Ukrainian collaborator - Ivan Marchenko. So, despite the fact that Demyanyuk was an SS guard, he wasn't accused of that. He was accused of being "Ivan the Terrible", which he was rightly exonerated of.

2. The current case is about his being an SS guard in Sobibor, a death camp. I think the prosecution showed well enough that he was. Tangential in this was also the fact that US authorities threw him out of the country due to lying on entry documents that he wasn't collaborating with NAZI.

 

I thought that Ivan Marchenko was just a name that he made up for his immigration papers or whatever.

 

Originally, in the first court process, this was the assumption under which the Israeli prosecution acted. But then, enough evidence had been presented that Ivan Marchenko was a real person and that HE was the famed "Ivan the Terrible".

 

Look, I am not following this case too closely either, but to me THIS has been more telling: There had been more than 3.5 million Soviet POWs, yet, there were no more than 500,000 Hilfswilige ("helpful willing allies" in german service)

And it wasn't only POWs who joined up the HiWi.

 

But when you are a guard in the Death Camp, you can, probably, acquiesce that what you're doing is wrong and desert. You know what happened to a NAZI police battalion when it refused to be sent to a death camp? They were not sent.

P.S. There was a large number of HiWi who weren't POWs. That should cut that 15% number in half, or more.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Djemanjuk serve in Vlasov's army prior to becoming a camp guard? If so, I don't think the "serve us or die" argument would apply.

 

You're kidding right?

 

But what about the 3,000,000 Soviet POWs that did not join up?

 

It's pretty weird how all of the ones who weren't given a choice were Ukrainian.

 

ROA weren't Ukrainians...

 

Actually, I don't know.

 

What about the ROA?

 

Never mind, I've run my course on this issue.

 

Azerbaijan has no chance to take Nagorno-Karabakh back. For Armenians it's a matter of blood and soil, not so for the Azeris.

 

Can you explain why?