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In the nightmare world
that was the Holocaust,
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with millions put to death
with relentless bureaucratic efficiency,
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it must have taken
someone of surpassing,
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almost unimaginable cruelty,
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to have earned the nickname
"Ivan the Terrible."
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And indeed, that individual,
a guard at the Treblinka camp in Poland,
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richly deserved that nickname,
demonstrating a bloodlust
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that survivors recall
with chilling clarity.
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Treblinka was a death camp.
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850,000 Jewish were killed there.
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It's maybe the biggest Jewish graveyard
in history.
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People arrived to Treblinka.
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They were took off, uh, the train.
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Their hair was cut,
they were stripped of their clothes
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and, uh, materials if they had some.
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They were taken to the gas chambers, and
within two hours, uh, they were dead.
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The German used to tell
the Jewish prisoner
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no one will believe them after the war.
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That even if they will survive
and tell the story,
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no one will ever believe
that something like that happened.
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It's now almost two
months since the start
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of Israel's biggest war crimes trial
for a quarter of a century.
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In the dock is John Demjanjuk.
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He was extradited from America
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to face charges that he was
the notorious Ivan the Terrible
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who murdered thousands of Jews
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at the Treblinka extermination camp
in Poland.
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This is the first and the only trial,
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and since then as well,
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ever being televised live...
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from courtroom,
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from the first to the last moment.
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There he is,
as he stands here! Here he stands!
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The trial here has mesmerized everyone.
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Every day, large crowds pack
the auditorium where the trial is held.
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Once the survivors began to testify,
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it became a national event
and a national obsession.
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While the testimony was going on,
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the taxi drivers pulled over
and listened on the radio,
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people were sitting at home,
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people were listening at work...
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in a way that no one expected in Israel.
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The show trial has become
a national obsession,
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and "show trial" it surely is.
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It runs live on national television
and two radio channels.
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There is no escaping it.
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I remember getting on the bus
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during the time in which
the survivor testimony was being told.
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The bus was completely full,
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and it was so quiet,
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you could hear a pin drop.
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The whole nation talk
about the Holocaust,
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about Treblinka,
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about the fate of the Jews.
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Uh, the show trial succeeds.
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To teach history,
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even the history of the Holocaust,
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through a typical criminal case...
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which all the main facts are disputed,
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you get the Demjanjuk case,
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the Demjanjuk affair,
the Demjanjuk disgrace.
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00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:57,080
The Demjanjuk case began in 1975
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when this man returned
to the United States
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from a trip to Moscow.
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00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,400
He brought with him a list of men who
the Soviets claimed were war criminals
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who'd taken refuge in America.
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A list was turned over
to the US Immigration Service,
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and they began to investigate people
on the list,
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one of whom was Fyodor Federenko,
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who had admitted that he was
a Treblinka death camp guard.
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During the US Justice Department
investigation,
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the American authorities sent a photo
spread to the Israeli authorities,
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including a photograph of Demjanjuk
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as filler, so to speak.
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The Americans,
when they first get information,
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they think, "Oh, well,
we have two collaborators"
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in the United States
who we would like to denaturalize.
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One is this Demjanjuk,
who we believe was at Sobibor,
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and the other is this Federenko,
who we believe was at Treblinka.
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How can we get more information
about these guys?
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Well, we'll go to the Israelis,
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because most of the survivors
of Treblinka
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"and Sobibor have settled in Israel."
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There was a unit of the Israeli police
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that interviewed Holocaust survivors
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in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem,
and elsewhere in Israel,
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and took testimonies from them.
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The police say investigators
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invited the survivors of Treblinka
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to identify... anyone
who was on this photo parade.
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So, the first witness came in,
she showed you the photo parade,
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and you went through the photos
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and jumped on Demjanjuk's
photo and said,
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"This is the operator
of the gas chambers."
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She was stunned,
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and she immediately argued with him
and said, "You are mistaken."
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This man was at Sobibor."
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And he said,
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"You can't tell me. I know him.
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This is the operator
of the gas chambers."
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Eleven survivors,
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one after the other,
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identified Demjanjuk's photo...
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as Ivan the Terrible from Treblinka.
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The survivors were in shock
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to see the man who stood
at the gas chambers.
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They all said,
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"He is photograph number 16."
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And that's where the drama begins.
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All rise.
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Please be seated.
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Mr. Shaked, please.
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Your Honors,
I would like to call Gustav Borax.
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Please rise.
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I must warn you
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that you must tell the truth,
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and if you fail to do so,
you are liable to punishment.
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Mr. Borax, what was your assignment
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during your time in Treblinka?
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- A barber.
- A barber.
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Please face the bench when you talk.
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A barber, I was a barber.
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When the women entered
the building, what did they do?
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They were afraid to enter.
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They would cry and tear out their hair
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because they saw they were
about to be put to death.
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00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:42,440
Ivan would push them in
with a bayonet spear.
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00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:50,280
And what happened to these
women after Ivan pushed them in?
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They were wounded
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and pieces of flesh were hanging
from them.
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The blood was dripping.
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My sister-in-law...
my sister-in-law was there,
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and she fell on me and started to cry.
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00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:14,320
The witness is crying...
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00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,320
Your Honors, with all due respect,
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why do we need to hear
these undisputed stories?
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Why do you say such words?
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This is the prosecution's case.
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If the prosecution wants to create
a clear picture to the court,
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they need to only
submit the testimonies,
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and we totally agree to submit them.
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But if they insist
on bringing these witnesses,
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we say the purpose
is not to bring it to you, honors,
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but to the 16 cameras up there.
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I ask that Mr. Sheftel withdraw
his last words.
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There will be a time when we will have
to take measures against you.
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We will have to put you in contempt.
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It is not the first time
you say these things,
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and we call you to order.
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- First, I would like to...
- We call you to order.
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You should take our words seriously
and with all the respect.
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What is this talk?
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The background is important.
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The background helps me understand
the value of the identification.
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Under what circumstances
did you know this man?
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You can't value the identification
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if you don't consider... Treblinka.
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The background, the deportation,
the murdered families.
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We had to hear it.
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It's part of our terrible story.
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The stories were incredibly difficult.
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There are cameras on you.
You know you're being filmed,
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and you're a judge.
You can't let your emotions show.
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But I went to visit a friend
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who was hospitalized at the time.
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And sitting by her bed,
I suddenly burst into tears.
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I remember their laugh.
They were looking for amusement.
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Bread, they had.
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Sadism and murder, they had.
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They only lacked amusement...
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And we, that were fighting to survive...
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I, Yoss'le from Warsaw,
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that was fighting to
survive, was also...
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I was their child toy of sadism.
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Yes, their child toy.
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Cherney was heartbreaking.
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His testimony was heartbreaking.
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Especially from the eyes
of this naive child
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that was running around there
in this camp,
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reflected the evil of this place
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and the ruthlessness.
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I felt a lot of sorrow...
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for what they were forced to pass.
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00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:04,960
Many admire
Shaked's handling of the witnesses,
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haunted people.
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He listens to them attentively,
patiently, and does not interrupt,
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but neither does he allow them
to veer off course,
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even when the testimonies
describe harrowing details
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such as the noises which could be heard
from within the gas chamber.
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This is part of the
heavy responsibility.
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I am there to make sure
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that they convey what they
want to convey to the court,
193
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and yet, come safe back home.
194
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Why did you kill them?
195
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Why?
196
00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:42,640
Did they do anything to you?
197
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Tell me why! Why did you kill them all?
198
00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:52,200
Demjanjuk never ever showed...
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anything.
200
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:56,200
His eyes didn't blink.
201
00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:00,200
There were no muscles
of facial expression used.
202
00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:03,480
He was just blank.
203
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Everybody said the same thing.
204
00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:11,120
He's a psychopath holding all of this
inside of him.
205
00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:16,040
Sheftel would always say that, you know,
"He's a peasant. He's dumb.
206
00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:19,040
He's... He's ignorant. He's..."
Uh, that's nonsense.
207
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,880
I don't know whether his children
or his wife
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00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:25,760
or anybody can tell exactly who he was.
209
00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:30,400
In a way, he seemed like a simple man,
210
00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:33,440
but in a way,
he seemed, like, smart as a fox.
211
00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:37,600
So, I think he was just... a survivor.
212
00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:40,760
And he did whatever it took to survive.
213
00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:50,920
Have you ever come
to your father and ask him,
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00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:52,880
"Father, tell me the truth.
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00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,920
- "Are you or are you not?"
- We've always known my father's innocent.
216
00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,000
We never had a shadow of a doubt
in our mind.
217
00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:01,560
Our father's a very kind person,
a very gentle person.
218
00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:03,960
We've learned a great deal
about the Holocaust
219
00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:06,376
and we know exactly
the kind of person Ivan the Terrible is.
220
00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:07,560
He's a sociopath.
221
00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:10,680
He's somebody that has
absolutely no feeling for human life.
222
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:13,880
And that... that person
is definitely not my father.
223
00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:16,000
Ivan the Terrible was a brutal man.
224
00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:18,680
My father's not a brutal man.
He never was.
225
00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:20,040
He would've hit me.
226
00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:23,960
I met Irene Demjanjuk at work.
227
00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,280
She was a receptionist, secretary.
228
00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:35,440
Just seeing her every day,
she always looked so melancholy.
229
00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,040
Then one day, I saw her notebook
230
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:40,920
that had that name on it.
231
00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:42,800
Uh, "Demjanjuk."
232
00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:45,760
And I says,
"Are you related to that guy?"
233
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,400
And, uh, she says, "That's my dad."
234
00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:54,120
I remember seeing Demjanjuk
for the first time.
235
00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:57,560
I asked him, "Is any of this true?"
236
00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:00,280
Just, I need to know.
Is any of it true?"
237
00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:02,840
And he said, "If I was guilty",
238
00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,440
I would just take a bottle of pills,
239
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:08,520
swallow 'em, and go to sleep
and not go through this,
240
00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:10,280
but I'm not him,
241
00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:14,080
- "and I'll fight these charges."
- Never. Never. Never.
242
00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:18,800
I thought this whole case
was just gonna get thrown out.
243
00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:22,640
So, we got married,
244
00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:26,360
and I told her I'd do
whatever I could do to help.
245
00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:30,200
It was, like, from the honeymoon
246
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:32,280
into the courtroom.
247
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:39,720
In the emergency center
of Ayalon prison,
248
00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:42,600
15 cameras are pointed
at highly sensitive cells.
249
00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:46,640
One of them films nonstop
the cell of Demjanjuk.
250
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:49,160
You have a home,
a shower, a garden, a yard,
251
00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:50,360
but what do you miss?
252
00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:53,320
You give me those crazy...
253
00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,880
Did you... Did you give me
those silly question? What I miss?
254
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:58,240
You don't know what I miss?
255
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:00,520
I miss my beautiful country, America.
256
00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,960
I miss my beautiful family, children,
and everybody.
257
00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:05,960
My friend, you know?
258
00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:10,080
When you give me question... uh-huh,
uh, yeah, yeah, that's bushh.
259
00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:18,280
His wife was really worried about him.
260
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:21,400
My wife was really worried about him.
261
00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,400
And they couldn't believe
what was going on.
262
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,120
I learned everything
about the witnesses,
263
00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:32,320
about the Holocaust.
264
00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:36,360
It still plays on my mind, 24-7.
265
00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:40,040
It doesn't go away.
266
00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:46,200
The crimes that he was accused of
were horrid...
267
00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:49,280
but they were real.
268
00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,320
I'd heard survivor testimony.
I've reviewed survivor testimony.
269
00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:57,840
Each one was different.
270
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,960
Each one was...
had their own personality.
271
00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:04,160
Each one projected that personality.
272
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:09,680
Which one touched me the most?
273
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:12,120
It's obvious who that was.
274
00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:14,960
Gustav Borax.
275
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:18,000
Mr. Borax, we're back to you, sir.
276
00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:20,120
Do you recall...
277
00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:23,000
whether or not you gave your testimony
278
00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,040
at a trial in the United States
279
00:18:26,120 --> 00:18:27,920
in Florida...
280
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,880
against an individual
that you remembered from Treblinka?
281
00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:35,440
And then,
I was just doing mind and memory,
282
00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:37,800
very gentle examination.
283
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:40,840
And gently, I'm asking him...
284
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:42,960
Don't ask me why I asked that question.
285
00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:44,040
I can't tell you.
286
00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,520
"How did you get from
Israel to Florida?"
287
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:52,320
Mr. Borax, do you remember
288
00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:55,840
how you traveled from Israel to Florida,
289
00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,040
so that you could speak to the court
in that trial?
290
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:03,480
Witness: Yes, we went by train.
291
00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:08,400
And it was, like, a big gasp...
292
00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:10,320
in the courtroom.
293
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:15,480
Don't ask me why I asked that question.
294
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:18,680
And he said, with...
Looking right straight at me,
295
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:21,360
in a wonderful, gentle way, "By train."
296
00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:23,240
By train.
297
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:32,000
How did he get to Florida?
298
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:34,240
And his answer, it was,
299
00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:36,240
"I took a train"
300
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:40,040
from Czestochowa, in Poland, a train...
301
00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:42,200
straight to Florida.
302
00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:45,680
"Straight to Florida."
303
00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:48,480
Now, of course,
304
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:51,400
uh, this is a hundred percent senility.
305
00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:55,400
And, uh, only a vicious...
306
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:58,480
merciless prosecutor
307
00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:02,600
would bring such a witness
to the witness stand.
308
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:06,160
He was not senile.
309
00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:10,040
He testified that he saw his wife
and his children
310
00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:14,600
and other relatives of his
being driven to the gas chamber,
311
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:16,120
and he was left behind.
312
00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:20,760
He simply moved back to where he was,
313
00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:23,560
and he lost contact
with what happens on the stage.
314
00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:26,440
He probably heard,
315
00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:27,960
"How did you reach Treblinka?"
316
00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:30,040
And he said,
"By train from Czestochowa."
317
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:36,560
I mean, the answer is the best...
testimony of his state of mind.
318
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,920
But I realized that I will not be able
319
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,000
to rely too much on his testimony.
320
00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:47,920
Mickey Shaked was extremely worried,
321
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,400
and I could see, for the first time,
322
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,400
a crack in his confidence...
323
00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:55,560
to the point where...
324
00:20:57,040 --> 00:20:58,320
we could lose this.
325
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:01,160
You know, we could lose this.
326
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:04,880
Mr. Borax. How old are you?
327
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:07,680
I was born in 1901.
328
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:12,000
And you were married before Treblinka?
329
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:15,360
- Yes.
- And you had two kids?
330
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:16,560
Yes.
331
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:18,080
What were their names?
332
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,080
Their names?
333
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:22,560
Pinhas and...
334
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:23,960
Pinhas...
335
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,840
uh... um...
336
00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:32,760
When Borax got on stage,
337
00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:35,880
some of the details were problematic
for him.
338
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:39,960
For example,
he forgot the name of one of his kids
339
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,560
that got murdered during the Holocaust.
340
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,400
It was a very embarrassing part
in the trial,
341
00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:47,840
maybe the hardest one.
342
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:50,920
Do you believe, Mr. Borax,
343
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:53,640
that you could have forgotten
344
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,280
the name of the younger son
345
00:21:57,840 --> 00:21:59,440
who died in Treblinka?
346
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,600
There were moments when he was sharp...
347
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:08,360
and moments when he wasn't,
and that was, of course,
348
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:10,880
terribly distressing because you saw
349
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,000
that these trials can't go on forever,
350
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:15,560
and that we're getting
very close to the end
351
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:19,680
of being able to have Holocaust
survivors as witnesses.
352
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:23,840
There were some tough days
353
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,280
in which we knew
that we were facing some problems.
354
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,920
The issue of the identification
became more... problematic.
355
00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:35,920
It was clear that not all
of the procedures that were done
356
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,360
were done in the best of manners.
357
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:40,080
Ivan the Terrible.
358
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:41,920
I am telling you that the first time
359
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:43,400
you were shown these photos
360
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,040
in the police station
361
00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:48,800
and you did point to a picture,
362
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:50,760
but it wasn't Ivan.
363
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:55,200
It was Federenko. Picture number 17.
364
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:57,880
Each attorney brought his own world
365
00:22:57,960 --> 00:22:59,240
into this trial.
366
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,920
And the most dangerous of them was,
of course, Sheftel,
367
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,480
because he went to the point
368
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,840
of identification immediately
369
00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:10,960
and began to attack
370
00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:12,600
the survivors.
371
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:16,880
You never pointed at "Ivan"
in any form or way!
372
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:20,680
You never mentioned his name,
never pointed at his photo.
373
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:23,360
You never said,
"Here's Ivan of Treblinka."
374
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,640
You didn't say anything about him.
375
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:30,960
You pointed at photo number 17
of Federenko. Period.
376
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:34,040
Some of the witnesses were liars.
377
00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:36,680
Some of the witnesses were seniles,
378
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:39,840
and some of the witnesses were seniles
and liars.
379
00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:51,280
What was the reaction
in Israel to your taking this case?
380
00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:53,560
Devastating. Um...
381
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:59,040
The country looked to me as enemy
of public number one.
382
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,720
Posters were raised
with photographs of the Holocaust
383
00:24:15,120 --> 00:24:17,640
with shameful, hurtful things
384
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:21,240
directed especially
towards Counsel Sheftel.
385
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:23,000
You!
386
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:25,440
You are part of that!
387
00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:27,520
Your hands are covered in blood!
388
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:32,200
I feel I am doing my job well,
389
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:36,720
and because I'm doing it well,
I'm spoiling the show...
390
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:43,000
I fully realize that most
Israelis hated me more than my client.
391
00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,640
I was called the most annoying person
392
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:48,920
in the state of Israel.
393
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,960
I was called a person
with no conscience whatsoever.
394
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:57,200
Nazi collaborator, killer,
and Nazi sympathizer.
395
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,920
Like, a... a person that
should be killed, eliminated.
396
00:25:04,360 --> 00:25:05,880
I couldn't go to synagogue,
397
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:08,400
because of the animosity
398
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:09,800
of the congregation.
399
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,480
Even my mother couldn't stand it.
400
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:15,520
She refused to talk to me.
401
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,360
He defended someone
who would've thrown his mother
402
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:22,440
into the gas chambers.
403
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:23,840
Who threw her sister.
404
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:25,160
Pfft.
405
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,040
That definitely...
406
00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:29,720
raised some questions.
407
00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:31,120
Truly.
408
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,720
I took care of myself psychologically
409
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:37,960
against it.
410
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:41,120
In a way, it even assisted me.
411
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:43,120
It make me more hardened,
412
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:44,640
more fighter.
413
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:46,880
I was functioning like nothing happens,
414
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:49,240
and they couldn't believe
that it's possible.
415
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:51,080
So they started to say
416
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,360
I enjoy to be hated.
417
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:59,720
The defense lawyer
Yoram Sheftel thrives on notoriety.
418
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,000
To take pride in a German car,
419
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,360
especially one as
noticeable as a Porsche,
420
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:07,440
is still unusual in Israel.
421
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,920
He, as a matter of politics,
422
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,880
made himself into this...
423
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:15,000
character who stood against the system,
424
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:17,960
and, uh, he loved every minute of it.
425
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,320
Mr. Sheftel, will you agree to take...
426
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,720
This is no joke, this is a real machine,
and the test will be real.
427
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:28,800
Will you take the test
and answer whether you truly believe,
428
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:30,200
in your heart of hearts,
429
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,760
that Ivan Demjanjuk
is not Ivan the Terrible?
430
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,000
He was always quick
to sit in front of the camera.
431
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:38,760
Always agreeable to any question.
432
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:42,520
He didn't want nice questions.
He... He wanted tough questions.
433
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,920
Listen
to the entire question and respond.
434
00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:50,200
Yes, first question.
435
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:51,840
- Is today Tuesday?
- Yes.
436
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,240
- Would you cheat a client?
- No.
437
00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:04,160
Do you believe that Ivan John Demjanjuk
is Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka?
438
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:05,560
No.
439
00:27:10,120 --> 00:27:12,200
Based on the test,
with some reservation,
440
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:14,680
since the test was held
in a studio before a live audience,
441
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:19,120
my assessment is that Mr. Sheftel
is not telling the truth.
442
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:25,760
He may believe that John Demjanjuk
is Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka.
443
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:32,160
It's obvious to me
that Sheftel chose to close his eyes,
444
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:36,360
saying that Demjanjuk
was not guilty of anything,
445
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:37,840
that he was a saint.
446
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:39,680
And that was not the case.
447
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,080
Mr. Shaked,
do you have another witness today?
448
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:52,360
Yes. The witness is
Mr. Eliahu Rosenberg.
449
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,840
Rosenberg is not a likable person.
450
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:02,280
He's a difficult person.
451
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,200
He's a little... bull,
452
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:10,440
and he's full of trauma and complexes
453
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,840
and everything submerged
deep within him.
454
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:16,680
And, uh, um, you know,
455
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,640
that is why, like a volcano,
he... erupted.
456
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:23,600
He screamed, "Wachmann!"
457
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,000
And the door opened...
458
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:31,320
We were hit on the head.
I was hit on the head, too.
459
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,440
I entered and saw a terrifying image...
460
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:40,920
I saw a mountain,
a mountain of corpses to my left.
461
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,200
We started running about,
462
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:48,360
but someone ordered,
"Grab a corpse and run!"
463
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:53,280
I was forced to run like a horse.
Gallop like a horse.
464
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:57,200
I kept working this way until noon.
465
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:01,280
I found out later, if it please the court,
this transport was from yesterday,
466
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,720
the one on which my family had been.
467
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:09,760
Your Honor,
468
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:14,400
this name, "Ivan," I remember well
469
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:20,160
from when I was
in a hell named Treblinka.
470
00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:26,400
Sometimes he would cut off
a piece of a nose, a piece of ear.
471
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:27,600
Stab!
472
00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,440
Why? Why? You cannot comprehend why!
473
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:35,600
But in this complex of Treblinka,
you just don't understand why?
474
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:36,920
My God!
475
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,240
Why torture?
Why cut off flesh from humans?
476
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,000
Nobody ordered him to do it to them!
477
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:49,160
Nobody!
478
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,040
He did it on his own accord.
479
00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:56,000
Every survivor
will tell you, "I've survived"
480
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:57,640
so that I can tell the story."
481
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:00,920
And here,
they were very much threatened.
482
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:03,000
They were much feeling threatened
483
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:07,600
by the fact
that someone doubted their story.
484
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:10,520
Someone doubted what happened to them
485
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:12,040
at Treblinka.
486
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:15,040
That's...
It was beyond their comprehension.
487
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:18,800
Mr. Rosenberg,
was it ever in your heart,
488
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,560
the time you were watching this happen,
489
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:26,480
to try to do something to help those men
that were running outside naked?
490
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,360
How could you have done so?
Your Honors...
491
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,200
If I saw... I saw...
492
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:42,880
I saw...
493
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:46,880
people going into these gas chambers,
494
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:49,400
I had no contact with them.
495
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,320
I could see them five
meters away from me.
496
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,600
They didn't even have a chance
to look up at me.
497
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,120
And what could I have told them?
498
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:00,880
Mr. Rosenberg...
499
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:08,040
But in what manner
could I help these people?
500
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,360
How? With what, with what?
501
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,840
Screaming,
"Don't get into those gas chambers"?
502
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:15,880
They didn't want to get
into the gas chambers.
503
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:20,760
And God forbid
any of us would have screamed,
504
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,480
shouted towards them,
would have tried to do anything.
505
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:26,440
That particular person
who would shout...
506
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:28,800
I don't wish you, Mr. O'Connor,
507
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,800
to even look at what would have happened
to such a person.
508
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:36,160
They would have shoved me straight alive
into a pit full of blood!
509
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:40,640
So don't ask me questions
of that manner, Mr. O'Connor.
510
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,120
I implore you.
You weren't there. I was there.
511
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,000
Ask him! Ask him!
512
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:46,280
Let him tell you!
513
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:48,680
Let him tell you
what he would have done to me.
514
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:04,080
Mr. Rosenberg, I should like you to
look at the accused. And if you can...
515
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:15,280
Will you please, Your Honor,
ask the accused to take off his glasses?
516
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:17,240
- What?
- His glasses.
517
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:19,880
His glasses?
518
00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:21,920
Why?
519
00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:23,640
I would like to see his eyes.
520
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:27,560
Please?
521
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,480
I want it
that he come in close to me, right here.
522
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:34,000
Okay.
523
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,320
He said, "I want to look at his eyes."
524
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:42,880
And when I look to his eyes,
525
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,560
I will know hundred percent for sure
526
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:48,320
"whether he's Ivan the Terrible or not."
527
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:50,000
I was against it.
528
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,280
I said, uh,
"This is part of the show trial."
529
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:59,160
But, O'Connor drag me, because he
was there for exactly for this.
530
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:03,040
And he said, "No, no, no, no." Ah!
531
00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:04,960
He's the boss at that time,
532
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:06,600
so I silenced.
533
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:09,520
Mr. Rosenberg, come over.
534
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,800
It was put to him to get up
and walk across the hall,
535
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,320
in front of the court,
in front of the tribunal,
536
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:19,000
to look into his eyes,
537
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:22,920
to make proof-positive sure
that he recognized John Demjanjuk,
538
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:24,920
the autoworker from Cleveland, Ohio,
539
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:28,000
as the notorious Ivan the Terrible.
540
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:30,880
And John Demjanjuk's extending his hand.
541
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:32,680
He didn't expect that.
542
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:35,400
Ivan the Terrible, how dare you!
543
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:40,240
It's like being caught up in a tsunami.
You cannot help but be affected.
544
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:42,080
You're in a sea of people
545
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:45,080
who are reliving the worst period
in history...
546
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:47,520
for their relatives...
547
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:49,440
for their tribe.
548
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:53,840
And you cannot help but be affected.
549
00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:59,840
- How dare you!
- Mr. Rosenberg...
550
00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:01,360
Get him away!
551
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:05,920
Please sit down! The public
is requested to keep their seats!
552
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:11,560
That is that devil!
553
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,160
Mr. Rosenberg,
please return to your witness stand.
554
00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:20,320
Mr. Rosenberg...
555
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:34,160
He jumped back as if he'd seen a snake.
556
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:38,840
And cried out. Screamed.
557
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:41,080
It was terrible.
558
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:45,240
You could see he knew him.
559
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:51,960
Mr. Rosenberg,
now that you're back on the stand,
560
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:56,920
what is your answer
to the prosecutor's question?
561
00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,200
Mr. Shaked, repeat the question.
562
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:04,400
Who is the man on the defendant's bench?
563
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:05,480
Ivan!
564
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:09,840
I have no doubt whatsoever.
565
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,520
Ivan from the gas chambers at Treblinka.
566
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:16,280
That's the man I'm looking at now.
567
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:20,120
I saw his eyes,
568
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,080
his murderous eyes,
569
00:35:23,720 --> 00:35:27,040
his face.
How dare you hold out your hand!
570
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:29,600
You murderer!
571
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,320
He says, "This is the murderous eyes"
572
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:34,680
of Ivan the Terrible."
573
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:38,720
Now, this was a sheer lie, lie,
574
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,080
but he was forced to lie.
575
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,320
What do you expect the poor guy to do?
576
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:46,320
To admit, in front of the nation,
577
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:49,760
that, uh,
he was talking bullshit till now,
578
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:52,000
and it's a mistaken identity?
579
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:54,360
Is such a thing possible?
580
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:56,240
In a normal court,
581
00:35:56,440 --> 00:36:01,160
no, uh, no, uh,
television screening and so on,
582
00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:04,560
maybe he will admit the truth.
583
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:06,960
He would be... He would admit the truth.
584
00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,320
But in the attitude of the court,
585
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,280
in the atmosphere of the court,
586
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:13,320
with the cameras on, he would say,
587
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:18,240
"I... I made a mistake."
588
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:20,400
Never! Never!
589
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:26,080
Good evening from Jerusalem.
590
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,280
I'm Ted Henry
with news of the mounting case
591
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:29,360
against John Demjanjuk.
592
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:33,800
It almost seems that the people of Israel
are breathing a collective sigh of relief.
593
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:36,640
For many, the emotional pitch
of this courtroom drama
594
00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:38,720
has just been too much to bear.
595
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,120
But this sort of thing,
how is this possible?
596
00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,080
- How could such a thing...
- They were wounded,
597
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:49,600
and pieces of flesh, whole pieces
of flesh were hanging behind them.
598
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:52,840
The blood was dripping.
599
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:56,440
He was brutal. He was cruel.
600
00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:57,720
He was a sadist.
601
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,320
After all, all of them were cruel
and sadists.
602
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:05,160
Can anybody under... understand?
603
00:37:05,240 --> 00:37:09,640
This is the disaster's
disaster. The disaster of the Holocaust.
604
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:13,320
That no language can convey
605
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:16,200
even a minute of Treblinka.
606
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:22,040
John Demjanjuk has only a few months
607
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:24,520
to show this court it has the wrong man.
608
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:26,720
His life is very much at stake
609
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:30,800
because conviction would almost
certainly mean execution by hanging.
610
00:37:31,240 --> 00:37:34,640
This is Dean Reynolds
for Good Morning America in Jerusalem.
611
00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:45,120
New evidence is casting doubt
on Israel's case
612
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:47,240
against the man facing trial there
613
00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:50,680
as the notorious Nazi death camp guard,
Ivan the Terrible.
614
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:53,880
His lawyer claims to have
Soviet government documents
615
00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:55,080
that will clear him.
616
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,240
And one of the world's
foremost Nazi hunters
617
00:37:57,320 --> 00:37:59,720
has come up with something
even more compelling.
618
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:01,960
The veteran Nazi
hunter, Tuviah Friedman,
619
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:04,000
has now produced a signed statement,
620
00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:07,240
taken from a Treblinka survivor
39 years ago,
621
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:10,560
in which the witness said
Ivan the Terrible had been killed
622
00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:14,000
during a 1943 uprising by camp inmates.
623
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:17,520
To my great mazel,
624
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:20,800
we discovered 64 pages
625
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,280
written by Rosenberg, in Yiddish,
626
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:26,760
his native language,
627
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,200
describing how Rosenberg and few others
628
00:38:30,800 --> 00:38:34,880
personally killed Ivan the Terrible
629
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,240
on the 2nd of August 1943.
630
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:40,640
Holocaust survivor Eliahu Rosenberg
631
00:38:40,720 --> 00:38:43,640
testified in court
that John Demjanjuk was, in fact,
632
00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:45,640
Treblinka death camp guard
Ivan the Terrible.
633
00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:49,400
However, last week, defense attorneys
discovered this 1945 statement,
634
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:51,400
in which they say Rosenberg claims
635
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,200
he saw another prisoner kill the guard,
Ivan the Terrible,
636
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,000
during a prison uprising.
637
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:59,040
Demjanjuk's son-in-law, Ed Nishnic,
showed me a copy of the statement,
638
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:03,440
which he claims was written by Rosenberg
two years after the prison uprising.
639
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,560
Rosenberg allegedly says
he saw a fellow inmate, Gustav,
640
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:08,680
give Ivan a hit on
the head with a spade,
641
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:11,160
so that he stayed lying there forever.
642
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:16,080
I think that it's a very good chance
that Mr. Rosenberg will be on this stand
643
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:17,440
by the end of the week.
644
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:22,120
I think Mr. Rosenberg needs to be asked
some very pointed questions.
645
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:27,200
Since it was sure
it's not a second Jesus Christ
646
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:29,640
that came out of his grave
647
00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:32,040
to the state of Israel to be tried...
648
00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:36,880
um, this is, uh, something
that, uh, cannot be explained.
649
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:43,920
I can't imagine
why Eliahu Rosenberg said what he said,
650
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,240
knowing what he knew
that he had said in 1947,
651
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:49,920
that the true Ivan the Terrible
was killed.
652
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:52,720
I was sorry for him.
653
00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:54,800
I was sorry for the other survivors
654
00:39:55,240 --> 00:39:58,800
who really believed in their heart
of hearts it was Ivan the Terrible,
655
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:00,920
and I was sorry for Jews.
656
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:06,640
Mr. Rosenberg...
657
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:11,320
did you not, in fact,
tell Tuviah Friedman...
658
00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:15,640
in the first person, plural...
659
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,600
not that you had heard by hearsay,
660
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,200
but that in fact, "we,"
as a collective term...
661
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:30,160
had burst in and killed
the sleeping Ivan?
662
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:33,480
Is that true, sir?
51213
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