Former Nazi Demjanjuk Dies At 91
BERLIN (CBSMiami) – John Demjanjuk, a former U.S. citizen convicted of working at the Nazi's Sobibor death camp died Saturday at the age of 91. Demjanjuk maintained for more than 30 years that he was not the guard and it was a case of mistaken identity.
Demjanjuk was convicted in May 2011 of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison.
He died a free man in a nursing home in the town of Bad Felinbach while awaiting the outcome of his appeal.
The family of Demjanjuk said he died of natural causes and had terminal bone marrow disease, chronic kidney disease and other illnesses.
The first accusations against Demjanjuk were made more than 30 years ago and maintained for decades that he had nothing to do with the Holocaust.
His conviction was the first of a person being convicted solely on the basis of serving as a camp guard and having no evidence of being involved in the killings.
In 1977, he was successful in his defense after being labeled as "Ivan the Terrible," an especially brutal killer at the Treblink death camp in Germany. It turned out another Ukrainian-born man was the actual "Ivan the Terrible."
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