James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought Lawrence Douglas is on location covering the trial for Harper’s Magazine. Having taught classes titled “The State and the Accused” and “Representing and Judging the Holocaust” and researched international war crime tribunals extensively, and having already written an essay on the case, the trial falls directly in Douglas’ area of expertise. He is fluent in German and has covered other war crime trials, including that of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
“I’m pretty well-situated,” Douglas told the Office of Public Affairs. “I’ve written a lot about war crimes, especially those associated with the Holocaust. I’ve studied the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, both in terms of what they contributed to international law and how they served as means of reckoning with history and as tools of democratic transition.”
The Demjanjuk case has been in the international spotlight for years. The Ukrainian-born retired Cleveland autoworker is accused of serving as an armed guard at Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. In 1986, he was deported from the U.S. to Israel and was convicted of being “Ivan the Terrible,” the notorious prison guard at Trebelinka extermination camp. However, he was acquitted and his death sentence overturned after new evidence emerged. His latest trial has been met with much controversy, as the octogenarian has presented himself to be in failing health — though some see this as a front to avoid the trial, as a doctor testified that his vital signs were stable and YouTube footage shows him as relatively active for a man his age.
“There is a fair amount of disagreement about how unhealthy this guy is,” Douglas said. “If he dies or is otherwise unable to withstand the ordeal of court, it would create its own irony that this trial had to happen so late.”
Though Douglas looks forward to the trial, he disagrees with those who attempt to use them to exact revenge or atone for previous wrongs.
“There are a lot of prosecutors who are eager to use this case as a way of establishing closure and making amends for decades of woeful absence of success in prosecuting war crimes,” he said.