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Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk and America's Open-Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals
John “Iwan” Demjanjuk was at the center of one of history’s most complex war crimes trials. But why did it take almost sixty years for the United States to bring him to justice as a Nazi collaborator?
The answer lies in the annals of the Cold War, when fear and paranoia drove American politicians and the U.S. military to recruit “useful” Nazi war criminals to work for the United States in Europe as spies and saboteurs, and to slip them into America through loopholes in U.S. immigration policy. During and after the war, that same immigration policy was used to prevent thousands of Jewish refugees from reaching the shores of America.
The long and twisted saga of John Demjanjuk, a postwar immigrant and auto mechanic living a quiet life in Cleveland until 1977, is the final piece in the puzzle of American government deceit. The White House, the Departments of War and State, the FBI, and the CIA supported policies that harbored Nazi war criminals and actively worked to hide and shelter them from those who dared to investigate and deport them.
The heroes in this story are men and women such as Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and Justice Department prosecutor Eli Rosenbaum, who worked for decades to hold hearings, find and investigate alleged Nazi war criminals, and successfully prosecute them for visa fraud. But it was not until the conviction of John Demjanjuk in Munich in 2011 as an SS camp guard serving at the Sobibor death camp that this story of deceit can be told for what it is: a shameful chapter in American history.
Riveting and deeply researched, Useful Enemies is the account of one man’s criminal past and its devastating consequences, and the story of how America sacrificed its moral authority in the wake of history’s darkest moment.
The answer lies in the annals of the Cold War, when fear and paranoia drove American politicians and the U.S. military to recruit “useful” Nazi war criminals to work for the United States in Europe as spies and saboteurs, and to slip them into America through loopholes in U.S. immigration policy. During and after the war, that same immigration policy was used to prevent thousands of Jewish refugees from reaching the shores of America.
The long and twisted saga of John Demjanjuk, a postwar immigrant and auto mechanic living a quiet life in Cleveland until 1977, is the final piece in the puzzle of American government deceit. The White House, the Departments of War and State, the FBI, and the CIA supported policies that harbored Nazi war criminals and actively worked to hide and shelter them from those who dared to investigate and deport them.
The heroes in this story are men and women such as Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman and Justice Department prosecutor Eli Rosenbaum, who worked for decades to hold hearings, find and investigate alleged Nazi war criminals, and successfully prosecute them for visa fraud. But it was not until the conviction of John Demjanjuk in Munich in 2011 as an SS camp guard serving at the Sobibor death camp that this story of deceit can be told for what it is: a shameful chapter in American history.
Riveting and deeply researched, Useful Enemies is the account of one man’s criminal past and its devastating consequences, and the story of how America sacrificed its moral authority in the wake of history’s darkest moment.
640 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2013
66 people are currently reading
408 people want to read
About the author
Richard Rashke
21 books66 followersRichard Rashke is the author of nonfiction books including The Killing of Karen Silkwood (2000) and the forthcoming Useful Enemies. His books have been translated into eleven languages and have been adapted for screen and television. Rashke is also a produced screenwriter and playwright; his work has appeared on network television and in New York. He is a former Catholic priest.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 10, 2013
Disclaimer: I received a review copy via Netgalley.
History is messy. It isn’t just the battles or the thousand, millions, who die for the most stupid and phobic of reasons. It’s messy because of judgment. What seemed like a good or even just a necessary idea then becomes an abhorrent injustice. Sometimes those of us who make those hindsight calls experience doubts because of what we know that they didn’t.
Yet sometimes the question and judgment are far simpler if still messy.
It is no secret, today, that after the Second World War America and other allied countries recruited people regardless if they had been registered as Nazis, and functioned, in cases, as Nazi guards and so on. Richard Rashke, though the case of John Demjanjuk, examines not only the US door policy on former Nazis but also though comparison of US policy towards refugees from Nazi Germany and Europe.
Because of the look at the different policies, it also is a rather depressing and anger inducing read. The scope of the book, a long book at over 500 pages, not counting notes, is not just America and post-War Europe but also Israel and post-Cold War Europe. The trials are described in detail – not just the courtroom battles but the posturing and arguments that occur outside of the courtroom. It is the outside posturing and reaction that make the book interesting. The politicians, judges, and various groups’ reactions and determination make engrossing reading. It is to Rashke’s credit that he is able to do so without demonizing the defense attorneys for the various defendants. It’s true, he doesn’t make you want to invite them out to tea, but they are not the devil incarnate. In fact, Rashke does an extremely good job of letting the reader reach conclusion as opposed to reaching conclusions for the reader. ’s other is a lack of intimacy that existed in Rashke’s Escape from Sobrior. No doubt this is due to the darker subject matter. And this is to Rashke’s credit. To become overly emotional, no matter how rightly called for, would weaken the book.
This isn’t to suggest that the book is all depressing and disappointing government stories, for there are heroes here as well. There is Elizabeth Holtzman who dug and dug and fought and fought to do what she knew was the right thing. There is prosecutor after prosecutor and judge after judge who battle to do what should have been done. There are those who face the enemies of the past in order to bring justice for the future.
The book, however, does make a reader think without preaching, something that few books are able to do today. Rashke does pose questions at the end of his work, but the questions are one that the attentive reader anticipates these questions. Rashke, however, does dispel some of the misconceptions that exists around the events. In many ways, this makes the book more of damning indictment of the policy and later day rejections to it.
And that is what makes the book readable, because while there is shame there are also things to be proud of. It is the answer to the question to take the good with the bad.
History is messy. It isn’t just the battles or the thousand, millions, who die for the most stupid and phobic of reasons. It’s messy because of judgment. What seemed like a good or even just a necessary idea then becomes an abhorrent injustice. Sometimes those of us who make those hindsight calls experience doubts because of what we know that they didn’t.
Yet sometimes the question and judgment are far simpler if still messy.
It is no secret, today, that after the Second World War America and other allied countries recruited people regardless if they had been registered as Nazis, and functioned, in cases, as Nazi guards and so on. Richard Rashke, though the case of John Demjanjuk, examines not only the US door policy on former Nazis but also though comparison of US policy towards refugees from Nazi Germany and Europe.
Because of the look at the different policies, it also is a rather depressing and anger inducing read. The scope of the book, a long book at over 500 pages, not counting notes, is not just America and post-War Europe but also Israel and post-Cold War Europe. The trials are described in detail – not just the courtroom battles but the posturing and arguments that occur outside of the courtroom. It is the outside posturing and reaction that make the book interesting. The politicians, judges, and various groups’ reactions and determination make engrossing reading. It is to Rashke’s credit that he is able to do so without demonizing the defense attorneys for the various defendants. It’s true, he doesn’t make you want to invite them out to tea, but they are not the devil incarnate. In fact, Rashke does an extremely good job of letting the reader reach conclusion as opposed to reaching conclusions for the reader. ’s other is a lack of intimacy that existed in Rashke’s Escape from Sobrior. No doubt this is due to the darker subject matter. And this is to Rashke’s credit. To become overly emotional, no matter how rightly called for, would weaken the book.
This isn’t to suggest that the book is all depressing and disappointing government stories, for there are heroes here as well. There is Elizabeth Holtzman who dug and dug and fought and fought to do what she knew was the right thing. There is prosecutor after prosecutor and judge after judge who battle to do what should have been done. There are those who face the enemies of the past in order to bring justice for the future.
The book, however, does make a reader think without preaching, something that few books are able to do today. Rashke does pose questions at the end of his work, but the questions are one that the attentive reader anticipates these questions. Rashke, however, does dispel some of the misconceptions that exists around the events. In many ways, this makes the book more of damning indictment of the policy and later day rejections to it.
And that is what makes the book readable, because while there is shame there are also things to be proud of. It is the answer to the question to take the good with the bad.
Read
June 12, 2020I had read Escape From Sobibor and appreciated the immense amount of work that had gone into it. It’s clear that Useful Enemies is no less of a labour of love. Beyond that, it is very difficult to compare the two books. They tell very different stories. Although both are biographical works surrounding time in the camps, the circumstances are so very different that I found it best, for the sake of clarity, to try not to think back to my reading of Escape From Sobibor.
The book tells of John Demjanjuk who, after moving to the United States, was accused of being ‘Iwan the Terrible’ who had caused immense suffering to those under his supervision. In reviewing this, and Demjanjuk’s subsequent experiences once it had been determined that he was not Iwan the Terrible, the book really covers three main areas:
1) Demjanjuk’s life, role in WWII and the Holocaust and the morality of his own actions. It also raises many questions about the strain that the allegations and trials had on Demjanjuk’s later years.
2) The psychology of false memory, needing someone to blame, needing a sense of closure. Clearly the horror of living through the Holocaust is something that is unimaginable but the book – very carefully and sensitively – questions how reliable witnesses could be after facing so much trauma and then so many years having elapsed.
3) The fallibility – or perhaps even corruption – of a US government that seemed to fail at every single turn to prosecute those they had clear and damning evidence against (providing those people could be of ‘use’ in some way) but also turned away a great number of Jewish people through cold and calculating policies, designed – if only subconsciously – to make it easier for a Nazi to enter the country than a Holocaust survivor.
As a Brit, I feel compelled to say that we in the UK were far from blameless and sadly, as a nation, even our current attitude towards immigrants in need can be extremely callous. That said, the focus of the book is largely on US practices and Demjanjuk’s trial in Israel.
Prior to reading this, I had seen an hour long documentary on Demjanjuk and after reading this, I realised it barely even touched the surface of the intricacies of this particular tale. You might initially wonder why this book is so much longer than Escape From Sobibor, when that told the story of so many. Upon reading, it becomes clear that Rashke is telling a different kind of victim’s tale. This one is so morally complicated that it is hard to know whether or not Demjanjuk was victim, persecutor, scapegoat or demon. You’ll have to draw your own conclusions.
Where Escape From Sobibor was almost black and white in its stark – and fully accurate – portrayal of innocent and evil, Useful Enemies paints a much more abstract picture. I believe you could ask 100 people about this book and every one would give you a different answer about the questions it left them with or the opinions they have. I am inclined to think that Rashke has brought some questions to the surface that really must be considered, if never fully answered.
The book tells of John Demjanjuk who, after moving to the United States, was accused of being ‘Iwan the Terrible’ who had caused immense suffering to those under his supervision. In reviewing this, and Demjanjuk’s subsequent experiences once it had been determined that he was not Iwan the Terrible, the book really covers three main areas:
1) Demjanjuk’s life, role in WWII and the Holocaust and the morality of his own actions. It also raises many questions about the strain that the allegations and trials had on Demjanjuk’s later years.
2) The psychology of false memory, needing someone to blame, needing a sense of closure. Clearly the horror of living through the Holocaust is something that is unimaginable but the book – very carefully and sensitively – questions how reliable witnesses could be after facing so much trauma and then so many years having elapsed.
3) The fallibility – or perhaps even corruption – of a US government that seemed to fail at every single turn to prosecute those they had clear and damning evidence against (providing those people could be of ‘use’ in some way) but also turned away a great number of Jewish people through cold and calculating policies, designed – if only subconsciously – to make it easier for a Nazi to enter the country than a Holocaust survivor.
As a Brit, I feel compelled to say that we in the UK were far from blameless and sadly, as a nation, even our current attitude towards immigrants in need can be extremely callous. That said, the focus of the book is largely on US practices and Demjanjuk’s trial in Israel.
Prior to reading this, I had seen an hour long documentary on Demjanjuk and after reading this, I realised it barely even touched the surface of the intricacies of this particular tale. You might initially wonder why this book is so much longer than Escape From Sobibor, when that told the story of so many. Upon reading, it becomes clear that Rashke is telling a different kind of victim’s tale. This one is so morally complicated that it is hard to know whether or not Demjanjuk was victim, persecutor, scapegoat or demon. You’ll have to draw your own conclusions.
Where Escape From Sobibor was almost black and white in its stark – and fully accurate – portrayal of innocent and evil, Useful Enemies paints a much more abstract picture. I believe you could ask 100 people about this book and every one would give you a different answer about the questions it left them with or the opinions they have. I am inclined to think that Rashke has brought some questions to the surface that really must be considered, if never fully answered.
Read
March 15, 2014It’s rare that I read a book that utterly floors me with what it reveals, but Useful Enemies: John Demjanjuk and America’s Open-Door Policy for Nazi War Criminals by Richard Rashke is one such book. I remember the furor that erupted around John Demjanjuk, a Ukranian immigrant living in Cleveland, when in 1986 he was deported to Israel and tried as an accessory to the murder of thousands of Jews, as he was believed to be “Ivan the Terrible,” a sadistic guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. Eventually acquitted and his U.S. citizenship restored, Demjanjuk was later deported to Germany in 2009 to stand trial again as an accessory to murder while serving as a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp; he died in 2012 while awaiting appeal.
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For the rest of this review, please go here: http://wcplfineprint.blogspot.com/201...
Our Fine Print Blog http://wcplfineprint.blogspot.com provides suggestions from our well-read library staff. The perfect resource for finding your next great read.
May 15, 2013
An exhaustive account of the forces that led to the Demjanjuk incident and seemingly unending trial. I found the post WWII nationalist machinations of the US and Soviet Union fascinating. If you didn't feel cynical and concerned about what governments are capable of 'behind the curtain' this book won't set you mind at ease.
Read
July 16, 2023During WWII, the US was slow to take in Jewish refugees, partly because of antisemitism at all levels of society and partly because the US didn't see admitting refugees as essential to winning the war, which it wanted to do for geopolitical reasons — though, of course, antisemitism was embedded in the geopolitical problem. Fighting antisemitism couldn't be cleanly separated from fighting the war. The US did admit nearly a half-million refugees. And so what if 1 in 100 refugees had been Nazi collaborators? Again, this was not a primary concern for U.S. policy. In later decades, more effort was made to identify them. This is a huge book that goes into a lot of detail.
February 14, 2025
I watched a documentary about John Demjanjuk on Netflix and saw this book featured in it. This book goes way beyond that case with a lot of background information and other people involved in the atrocities committed during World War II.
Having known about Operation Paperclip this book goes into more detail about how the US government actively brought over Nazi collaborators to the US after the war because of what they could get from them while totally ignoring the crimes they committed.
It's a good, detailed book but the subject matter will frustrate you because it feels like the bad guys win for the most part.
Having known about Operation Paperclip this book goes into more detail about how the US government actively brought over Nazi collaborators to the US after the war because of what they could get from them while totally ignoring the crimes they committed.
It's a good, detailed book but the subject matter will frustrate you because it feels like the bad guys win for the most part.
January 13, 2015
It is hard to read about the brutality of the concentration camps. No doubt there were many former guards who made their way into the US after the end of the war. Given the chaos in Europe from all the devastation, with thousands of displaced people, it would have been impossible to thoroughly check the background of everyone who immigrated. But not always was this the case: Werner von Braun appears to have used slave laborers in the brutal construction of a V2 factory.
Late in life, John Demjankuk was arrested and tried for crimes he may or may not have done. The evidence against him was not very convincing. Did it do any good to prosecute him after so many decades, especially when the evidence against him was sparse at best? Did putting him on trial do anything other than give the US the chance to clear its conscience a bit? Probably not.
Late in life, John Demjankuk was arrested and tried for crimes he may or may not have done. The evidence against him was not very convincing. Did it do any good to prosecute him after so many decades, especially when the evidence against him was sparse at best? Did putting him on trial do anything other than give the US the chance to clear its conscience a bit? Probably not.
August 11, 2018
Incredible book -- much of it was a revelation to me. I find myself urging this book on multiple people in my life. I think we need to know that in the aftermath of World War II, the role of the United States wasn't as pure, altruistic and high minded as we have been led to believe. I confess this book was very hard for me to get into because the first few chapters challenged my preconceptions.
The other important theme running through the book is the story of John Demjanjuk. How quick we are to condemn people without knowing their story. What would we do in the same situation? How do we decide who is a Nazi criminal and who is not?
Rashke manages to treat with some extremely challenging and complex topics in this book without descending into editorial. His objectivity is admirable and his research is solid.
The other important theme running through the book is the story of John Demjanjuk. How quick we are to condemn people without knowing their story. What would we do in the same situation? How do we decide who is a Nazi criminal and who is not?
Rashke manages to treat with some extremely challenging and complex topics in this book without descending into editorial. His objectivity is admirable and his research is solid.
October 31, 2020
This is an amazing book about a shameful episode in our history. I hesitate to call it an episode as it was spread over decades. This is all about the lengths that branches of our government , CIA, FBI, Army, Navy and State Department, went to to help Nazis gain citizenship. Failing that, they obscured the pasts of these men and women, making it harder or impossible for them to be brought to justice. The only saving grace is that Germany's record of prosecuting Nazis is worse than ours.
November 18, 2016
Holocaust read
If the legal wrangling had been toned down, would have give more stars. It was fascinating to understand how America, Britain, France, and Russia used known war criminals as spies. I learned several amazing facts that I did not know. The author was diligent in his following of one particular case, and its legal journey thru 3 trials in 3 countries over lengthy period of time.
If the legal wrangling had been toned down, would have give more stars. It was fascinating to understand how America, Britain, France, and Russia used known war criminals as spies. I learned several amazing facts that I did not know. The author was diligent in his following of one particular case, and its legal journey thru 3 trials in 3 countries over lengthy period of time.
June 6, 2013
Well-written and easy to read. There are five main chapters. The first one describes the US's complicity in allowing and even pursuing Nazis to come to the United States. Everyone is dirty: FBI, CIA, DOJ, INS... the list goes on and on. It really, really makes one angry. The other four chapters cover the various trials of John Demjanjuk (may his name be erased).
April 1, 2017
I got way more than I bargained for with this book. It's a must-read if you want to understand the U.S.'s approach to immigration, and is most apropos for our current times. I'm not sure I like our government as much as I did before I read it, however. I thought the U.S. was morally superior to other countries but I now I'm not sure. Our current behavior is not very reassuring.
Should you read it? Absolutely.
Should you read it? Absolutely.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews