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Death Camp Survivor Confronts Demjanjuk

Ukranian guards 'worse than Germans,' Thomas Blatt tells court

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 20, 2010 2:15 AM CST

(Newser) – One of the very few survivors of Sobibor yesterday recounted death camp horrors at the Munich trial of alleged SS guard John Demjanjuk. Thomas Blatt, 82, told jurors how he saw his parents and 10-year-old brother sent to the gas chambers at the Polish camp, the Independent reports. Ukrainians like Demjanjuk, who later became a US citizen, were "far worse than the Germans," Blatt told the court, telling of the camp uprising when he escaped.

Blatt says he can't positively identify Demjanjuk as having been at the camp, although prosecutors say they have evidence proving he was there at the time of the atrocities Blatt described. Demjanjuk, accused of being an accessory to the murders of 27,900 Jews, lay in a hospital bed in a corner of the courtroom with his eyes closed during Blatt's testimony.

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

Thomas Blatt, one of the joint plaintiffs in the Demjanjuk trial, arrives in the country court building in Munich yesterday. (AP Photo/Oliver Lang, Pool)

Thomas Blatt, right, and Philip Bialowitz, left, joint plaintiffs during the Demjanjuk trial, arrive in the country court building in Munich yesterday. (AP Photo/Oliver Lang, pool)

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The Ukrainians were always there, they were the most important personnel in Sobibor. Without them, the death factory wouldn't have functioned.
- Sobibor survivor Thomas Blatt

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 4 comments

jimprzedzienkowski

Jul 26, 2010 1:35 PM CDT

This statement is misleading and implies an incorrect representation of history "the gas chambers at the Polish camp," The Nazi Germans established the concentration camps on occupied Polish soil. Please correct the offending statement.

smartyMcSmartsmart

Jan 21, 2010 12:21 PM CST

oh wow!! which demon is worse.

So_Cal_Larry

Jan 21, 2010 1:12 AM CST

We watched this same type activity in Israel a few years ago in a similar case. An eye-witness who was certain the defendant was a murderer of Jews in concentration camps fifty years before. And, guess what? The witness, like many eye witnesses everywhere, was wrong. For me, sometimes I can't tell it was the same person after a haircut, or with new makeup, or after five years.

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Crime & Courts • World

Holocaust • Nazi • John Demjanjuk • death camp • Nazi Germany • John Demjanjuk trial • Holocaust survivor • Toivi Blatt

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Death Camp Survivor Confronts Demjanjuk