Defending Ivan the Terrible: The Conspiracy to Convict John Demjanjuk

by Yoram Sheftel, Haim Watzman (Translator)

This is the acclaimed account of the infamous trial of John Demjanjuk, falsely accused of being one of the most monstrous of Nazi war criminals, Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka.

445 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1996

About the author

Yoram Sheftel (born January 15, 1949) is an Israeli Jewish lawyer who once represented accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk in the late 1980s.

Reviews

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is an Israeli lawyer who joined the defense team when he determined that John Demjanjuk was being tried under false pretenses, and became the most hated man in his country for doing so. Indeed, he was reluctant to take on the task even after finding that Demjanjuk was nothing like the monster he was accused of being.

It was a show trial from the beginning, with manufactured evidence to convict Demjanjuk and evidence of his innocence discarded. The government, law enforcement agencies, and court system in Israel are painted in a very bad light, but blame goes also to the United States, Poland, and Germany for their roles as well. The author makes it clear he was acting out of principle; he indicates that he hated non-Jews and Christians in particular, which does not make him saintly even if he was a hero. In any case, he prevented an innocent man from being hanged as a scapegoat.