The Devil Next Door (2019): Season 1, Episode 3 - The Conspiracy - full transcript

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING]

[EXCITED CHATTER]

[NEWSCASTER] New evidence is casting doubt
on Israel's case

against the man facing trial there

as the notorious Nazi death camp guard,
Ivan the Terrible.

[REPORTER 1] Eliahu Rosenberg
was the key eyewitness

for the prosecution.

[SPEAKING HEBREW]

[SHOUTS]

[LEVIN, IN HEBREW] Mr. Rosenberg...

[REPORTER 1, IN ENGLISH]
But new evidence emerged



that undermined
Rosenberg's dramatic testimony.

[REPORTER 2] The veteran Nazi hunter,
Tuviah Friedman,

has now produced a signed statement,

taken from a Treblinka survivor
39 years ago,

in which the witness said
Ivan the Terrible had been killed

during a 1943 uprising by camp inmates.

"Ivan, uh, the... the Terrible was killed

by... by, uh... the Jewish uprising."

[FLAMES CRACKLING]

[HOD] On the 2nd of August, 1943,

the uprising started.

The prisoner understood
it's kind of a suicide activity,

but in that time,

everyone know
that there is no other option.



They decided they will go
to the Ukrainian guards,

kill them, and steal their weapons,

so they will have more power
to run away from the camp.

[EXPLOSION BLASTS]

[HOD] Most of the people got shot.

The others were killed, there and then.

From the uprising,
less than 300 succeeded to escape.

At the end of the war,

uh, there were 70 people
from Treblinka that survived.

[GABAY] Rosenberg had written an account
of the revolt at Treblinka...

that Ivan was killed.

He wrote that in 1947.

And it was a concern that, at that point,

a good defense attorney would jump
on that point.

"Hey, you wrote this.
What do you say to that?"

[SHEFTEL] We read to him, word by word,
translated to Hebrew from Yiddish,

how he described the killing,

not only in front of his eyes,

but how he takes part in that killing.

So, how can you say that this poor man,

uh, sits behind me, uh,
is, uh, Ivan the Terrible?

I mean, you just...

I read to you how you killed
Ivan the Terrible 40 years ago!

Mr. Rosenberg, did you not,
in fact, tell Tuviah Friedman...

in the first person plural...

not that you had heard by hearsay,

but that, in fact,
"we," as a collective term,

had burst in and killed the sleeping Ivan?

[ROSENBERG, IN HEBREW]
It was my heart's wish.

Of course I believed that he was killed.

It was a success!

Can you imagine, sir,
the uplifting of this great success,

of this great event,

that someone killed our murderer?

Is there any doubt?
I believed it with all my heart!

I wish it was the truth.

I wish.

That's the whole truth.

We wished. Every one of us wanted
to brag about how he did it.

It was grand!

But here... the creature sits before us.

[SHAKED, IN ENGLISH]
Rosenberg was summoned again to testify,

and he gave the best, I think,
explanation to it.

That it was his wishful thinking.

And everybody can understand it,

that, uh, you want to show
that you managed to kill the evil,

or the embodiment of the evil,
by yourself,

which is not true.

[IN HEBREW] If he died over there,
he wouldn't sit here before me.

Staring and laughing...

This hero is laughing!

[IN UKRAINIAN]
Mr. Rosenberg, you are a liar, liar, liar!

[AUDIENCE MURMURS]

[HOD, IN ENGLISH]
People in Israel didn't know how to treat

the survivors that had just arrived.

"How can it be that..."

you survived, and six million didn't?

What have you done...

"to survive this horror?"

People in Israel were very cruel

to those people
that just, uh, survived this tragedy.

And you discover that, through the years,

they developed a different image
of how they survived.

I think that the witnesses touched, a bit,

their very deep guilt feelings

that they stayed alive.

That they didn't commit suicide.

That maybe someone will ask,

"How come you stayed alive?" And...

they wanted to live,

and they did their utmost to live.

And...

and maybe Rosenberg
needed something heroic

to balance, uh, this guilt feeling.

I think that the solution
was the right one.

That no one killed the operator
of the gas chamber,

and it was part of the myth

that, uh, was told after the uprising.

[REPORTER]
There are probably ways of ascertaining

whether Ivan the Terrible was,

in fact, killed at Treblinka.

German records from the Nazi period,

maybe the testimony
of Treblinka supervisors

still in German jails.

That may be necessary
to rebut Demjanjuk's claim:

"I wasn't following orders;

I wasn't even there."

[INSTRUMENTAL THEME MUSIC PLAYING]

[WATER POURING]

[SHEFTEL] There is a lot of art
on the walls in my house.

All together, 177 original paintings

in, uh, nine rooms.

Uh, if we take, uh, for instance,

uh, this painting,

it was painted by a notorious murderer.

And you could see
that, uh, the man is, uh, problematic,

if we use understatement,

from the figure of the painting.

But it's a...

it's a good quality painting,
no doubt about it.

Now, this is the most famous
and the best photograph

live from the Demjanjuk case.

He was conducting the prosecution case,

Michael Shaked.

That's O'Connor.

Not at this point,

but very soon later,

I was leading the defense.

[HENRY] Good evening.
I'm Ted Henry with the latest

on the John Demjanjuk war crimes trial
from Israel.

He continues to say
he's the victim of mistaken identity.

Yet, one
of the most important pieces of evidence

linking John Demjanjuk
to the Nazi death camps in Poland

surfaced in the trial today.

If it's not discredited,

it could single-handedly bring about
a conviction,

which in turn, could lead
to the death sentence for John Demjanjuk.

[AUDIENCE CLAMORING]

[IN HEBREW] Prof. Sheffler, I present you
with a document marked M1

and ask you to look at the document

and tell the court what it appears to be.

[IN GERMAN] This document is a service ID
of a soldier.

THE NAME ON THE DOCUMENT IS:

"Demjanjuk, Ivan."

[SHAKED, IN ENGLISH] The Trawniki card,
which was his membership card in the SS,

was the most important evidence
in this trial.

Because this really moved him

from a condition
that he was mistakenly brought to Israel

into collaboration with the Nazis.

[REPORTER] The German identity card
was issued at Trawniki

in Eastern Poland in 1942.

Thousands of Ukrainians who collaborated
with the Nazis were trained there.

[ROSENBAUM] This ruthless force trained
at the Trawniki training camp,

a school for mass murder,

did the dirty work.

They all took part in every phase

of the operation of the death camps.

[REPORTER] The card shows
a soldier called "Ivan Demjanjuk"

was posted to Sobibor,

an extermination camp for Jews.

There is no mention of Treblinka,
about 60 miles away,

but the prosecution argued
he'd worked at both.

The card is damning proof.

[YOUNGER SHAKED SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

[ROSENBAUM]
The Trawniki card has multiple details

that apply only to Demjanjuk,

beyond his name, his birthplace,

his father's name, the scar on his back...

and an old black-and-white photo
taken decades earlier.

[CLERK, IN HEBREW] All rise!

[REPORTER] With the enlarged photograph
overlooking the proceedings,

questions were asked once again.

How can you measure visual similarity?

[IN ENGLISH] Um... When I was first asked
to give an opinion in this case,

I WAS PRESENTED WITH TWO PHOTOGRAPHS:

photograph number one
and photograph number four.

[SMITH] To prove that he is that man

and has done these things,

it's a big responsibility.

I looked at the photos.

Yes, there's a resemblance,

but... it was important

to see which features
were easily identifiable.

[YOUNGER SMITH] As the video shows,

you can see the exact continuation

of the position of the earlobes,

the shape, direction, inclination,

every detail on the nose
and the upper lip,

the distance between the eyes,

the interpupillary distance is identical.

[SMITH] The upper face, for example,

except for the cheeks,

doesn't change, uh, during life.

The distance
between the eyes doesn't change.

The shape of the head doesn't change.

The very marked widow's peak,

which you can see in all of the photos.

[YOUNGER SMITH] The results
of these many hundreds

of studies all show that the probability

that two individuals
should be so identical

in so many features is,

to all intents and purposes, none.

[REPORTER 1] Very methodically, Shaked was
able to add support to his claim

that the Trawniki ID card
authentically belonged to John Demjanjuk.

[REPORTER 2] A day of high-tech drama

at the trial of alleged Nazi war criminal,
John Demjanjuk.

A prosecution witness made
a controversial visual presentation.

"Demjanjuk's lawyers
called it a "Hollywood production

by an unqualified witness."

Uh, this is, you know,
a real, uh, frame-up.

We hired an expert

and asked whether
what she's doing is worthwhile.

And he said...

"No, it's absolute garbage.

It's worthless!"

If you would look
at where the shoulders are beginning,

on the picture of John Demjanjuk,

you can see clearly the difference
in the shoulders

where, in fact, you have indicated
that the heads were, at this point,

were pretty much the same.

Uh, certainly, there's a difference
in the position of the, uh, body.

Now, if you'd direct your attention
to the top of the head.

What I'm specifically referring to,
Professor Smith,

is the position of the head
is slightly higher

in one photograph than in the other,

as it blends in and changes over.

Yes, there is a slight difference.

Now, clearly you saw that the ear
on the left was much higher,

and at the same time
that the ear was higher,

the eyes appear to be somewhat lower.

[YOUNGER SMITH]
There is a minor discrepancy, yes.

Now, obviously, you can detect
that the eyes are totally different

with regard to the depiction
of what you have on the videotape.

Is that not correct?

Um, I... I'm sorry,
I... I'm used to making a, uh...

evaluation. I... I can't really judge
from that photograph.

[SMITH] You want the honest truth?

It's... It's a contentious topic.

It's a contentious topic.

I was very... uh, tense the whole time.

Superimposition had been used
occasionally beforehand.

But the superimposition
was really more of a show.

Because he was walking around,
he wasn't posed for it...

it wasn't a... precise, uh, image.

[REPORTER] In court today,

it seemed Demjanjuk's photo
is still a matter of dispute.

But now, Demjanjuk's defense
has a new card to play,

claiming the Trawniki card itself is fake.

[SHEFTEL] The prosecution says
that this is authentic document.

But the point is,

the photograph is not originally
on the card.

The card is false.

[AUDIENCE CHATTERING]

[IN HEBREW]
The defense will not only state

that the document is a forgery,

we will summon experts
of the highest caliber

who will shatter this document
and leave nothing of it.

Not the signatures, nor the photo.

Nothing will remain
of the entire document.

We will shatter
and pulverize this document.

We will leave nothing of it.

[LEVIN]
But please leave us the original, okay?

Definitely.

[LEVIN] Good. Thanks.

[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]

Only the original will remain.

[REPORTER, IN ENGLISH]
It is an identity card from Trawniki.

This copy shows a photograph,
the name Ivan Demjanjuk,

and a signature.

The prosecution says it's genuine.

Demjanjuk's defense lawyers say
it's a fake,

a forgery done by the KGB.

Not one government expert ever said
he ever saw anything like that before.

This strange card,

which is a mixture of God knows what.
This is what Schafer said.

Not only was it not an ID card,
he didn't know what it was.

They had all the documents.
Germans are ver-very good with documents.

They had every single document,
but not one like this one.

[REPORTER] These copies of file cards,
issued at Trawniki to Ukrainian guards...

They are completely different
in shape and design

from Demjanjuk's alleged card.

They had Streibel,
who was the head of the camp.

His name was on it.

He was still alive.

We talked to him.

They had two or three of the paymasters
on there.

They looked at it,

and they said,
"Certainly, it's... it's not an ID card."

[SHEFTEL]
It was in the possessions of the KGB

at least from 1948.

How do we know?

There was a stamp.

Did you attach any significance

to the fact that the ink seems
to just be on the photograph

and not on the paper?

This indicated to me
that we had a stamp impression

that was made
with two different stamps

to give the impression
that one stamp had been used.

It's possible to see that the stamp,

which should be applied afterwards,

does not register
with the portion on the card.

The card, obviously,
from an historical standpoint,

was in the hands of the KGB.

[ROBERTSON] The signature, "Demjanjuk,"
on the ID card,

was not done by the same writer.

The fact that the Demjanjuk signature,
in my opinion, is forged,

then there has got to be something wrong
with the document.

[REPORTER] Flynn noticed something else
about the card.

The photograph of Demjanjuk contained

what were obviously
two large staple holes.

But the staples had not penetrated
through to the back of the card.

It's obvious to even nonexperts

that the photograph itself
had to have, uh, been attached

to another document.

[REPORTER] Flynn is convinced
that it was the Soviets, not the Germans,

who had attached the photo to the card.

The only evidence they had against him was
from the Soviet Union,

and the Soviet evidence,
and the Soviet Union cannot be trusted.

[SHEFTEL] The Red Army entered Trawniki

and collected all the papers,

all the documents.

Everything was there,

including empty ID cards like this.

Which then, uh,
there is a complete possibility

of the KGB to forge such a card.

They did it in order to break up
the cooperation

between the chauvinist, neofascist,

Ukrainian, Lithuanian,

and Jewish, uh, communities in America

with their anti-Soviet activity.

[O'CONNOR] The chain of custody
is right from the KGB.

I know active measures.

I know how effective they are.
They can forge anything.

They can bring dates forward,
they can bring dates back.

They are the best in the world,
and we acknowledge that.

[GABAY] It sometimes amazed us
that Demjanjuk's lawyer

was the son of... of the commissioner

who had actually written the law

to allow certain individuals
into the United States.

O'Connor's father was a biggie.

Edward O'Connor worked with refugees
in Germany after the war.

And he was so humanitarian,

the United States raised him up
to the Displaced Persons Commission.

And there, he set policies

that favored Nazi collaborators.

They are some of the most
anti-communistic people you can find,

and therefore, they're an asset

because they will fight communism
in the United States.

[CROWD CLAMORING]

[DOUGLAS]
Mark O'Connor's father is already someone

who has kind of very dubious credentials.

I mean, this is a guy
who seemed quite anti-Semitic,

flirting with Holocaust denial,

and I don't think it's defamatory,
in any way, to describe him

as with real Nazi sympathies.

[O'CONNOR] Yes, my father

was very instrumental
in reaching out to these people

submerged behind what Lenin called
"the prison house of nations."

If you're saying, "Okay, by saving them,
he let the Nazis in," that's nonsense.

Absolute nonsense.

Total nonsense.

Not everybody's gonna agree.

They're gonna say,
"Okay, this O'Connor's a phony."

There's something behind him.
He's an anti-Semite, he's a racist,

he's a revisionist, he's...

"Look at this.
His father did this and that." Okay, um...

Okay, I accept that.

[RASHKE] So, Edward O'Connor said,
"Go to my son, Mark.

He is a very good attorney."

He may have been good at wills...
[CHUCKLES]

And the birth certificates,

but he had
very limited courtroom experience.

[YOUNGER O'CONNOR] Your Honor,
may it please the court,

we continue our objection
with regard to the introduction

of the questioned documents supplied

by the government of the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics.

[SHAKED] The whole idea
of forging the Trawniki card

is completely far-fetched.

WE HAVE CHECKED THERE EVERYTHING:

paper, photos,

signatures, ink, stamps on it.

Everything was checked
by top experts from the world.

To say that the... the Trawniki card
was a forgery is completely...

It is not serious.

[IN HEBREW] We overrule the objection

heard by Adv. O'Connor.

[IN ENGLISH] Your Honor,
this is a terrible obfuscation.

At least I'll attempt to.
You can certainly overrule me, Your Honor,

and make a judgment today
on this case if you wish,

but I humbly and respectfully would
at least try to get on the record

what I'm attempting to do
with the obfuscation

that's developing here
with the prosecution.

[IN HEBREW]
Mr. O'Connor, just stop shouting.

When you raise your voice,

it's quite disruptive.

Kindly moderate your voice.
Am I understood?

- [IN ENGLISH] Whatever the court wishes...
- [IN HEBREW] That's better.

[IN ENGLISH] ...is my desire.
If my level is too high, Your Honor,

I will make it lower at any time you say,
Your Honor.

We submit to the jurisdiction
of this court in that regard.

[IN HEBREW] Thank you. Now, please...

[REPORTER, IN ENGLISH] O'Connor's
rhetorical excesses have drawn criticism

even from the judges hearing the case,

and his inability to stop
the introduction of a critical

and controversial identity document
into evidence

raised questions
about the quality of his representation.

[TEICHOLZ] Over time,
when the Demjanjuk family came

and saw the case,

they began to be concerned

'cause they wondered
whether O'Connor was effective or not.

My belief in him waned very quickly

when I would try to ask him something.

We're in the Demjanjuk backyard,
for instance,

and I'd say, [STAMMERS]
"Wh-What do we got going on here?

What... What...
What kind of witnesses do we have?"

And he'd go...

Like, really weird eyes,
you know, like this...

and then he'd go...

You know, like...

the... like the frickin' CIA is sittin' in
the... in... in a pear tree or something.

You know?
Uh, don't... don't give me that. Uh...

Don't... Don't... Don't piss on my back
and tell me it's raining outside,

'cause, hey, it... it's piss.

[REPORTER]
The three lawyers representing Demjanjuk

have been bickering
among themselves of late,

and this morning,
they moved to have the case dismissed

because of insufficient evidence,

to which the judges
hearing the case said no.

The trial has gone into recess now
until July 27th,

and on that date, John Demjanjuk will walk
the 45 feet across the courtroom floor

and take the stand himself.

The three-judge panel hearing the case
will return its verdict

in about six weeks.

And if the decision is guilty as charged,

then John Demjanjuk could be sentenced
to death by hanging.

- [CROWD CLAMORING]
- [CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING]

[POLICE SIRENS WAILING]

[MAN] Okay, you ready?

I'm here in the US consulate

in West Berlin,

US Consulate General.

The deposition of Otto Horn.

[SHAKED] Suddenly, we learned
from the American prosecution

that there is a Nazi from Treblinka

who identified Demjanjuk
as the operator of the gas chamber.

So, from this point of view,
it is not a witness that you can let go.

[CLEARS THROAT] Mr. Horn,
what kind of place was Treblinka?

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

[INTERPRETER] That was a camp...
An extermination camp.

[CONTINUES SPEAKING GERMAN]

[INTERPRETER] People were exterminated
there... were gassed.

[IN HEBREW] Otto Horn was an SS man
stationed at the upper camp,

not far from the gas chambers.

He was in charge of that area.

And there,
the people were run to their death.

That same Otto Horn was also in charge
of exhuming and burning the bodies,

the crushing of bones.

[OFFICIAL, IN ENGLISH] This gas chamber,
on which you have drawn an X,

where the Jews were brought
to be gassed,

were these people all men?

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

[INTERPRETER]
No, no, just anything. Men and women.

Were... Were there children included
as well?

[INTERPRETER AND HORN SPEAK GERMAN]

[INTERPRETER] Yes.

[O'CONNOR] I was there when he told us.

He said, "Look, I'll let you do this,
but you got to promise me one thing:"

don't tell my girlfriend anything
about this."

[WHISPERS] "Don't tell my girlfriend."

[IN NORMAL VOICE] And it was chilling.

How long would the process
of gassing last?

[HORN SPEAKING GERMAN]

[INTERPRETER] Then, after one hour only,
the chambers were opened...

[HORN CONTINUES SPEAKING GERMAN]

And then the corpses were carried away

into the pit, and promptly, for burning.

[SHEFTEL] I said all along,

"I'm not going to involve myself"

in any direct Nazi personalities

as evidence.

"Let the prosecution use the SS Nazis.
Not me."

Certainly, it was in our interest
to have a Nazi from Treblinka say,

"I recognize that's the guy
from the gas chambers."

I admit, it was more important
to get the conviction

than that morality

to prove that he was...

Ivan Grozny, Ivan Demjanjuk,
Ivan at the gas chamber.

Okay. I'd like you to take your time,

look at these photographs.

Look at all of them.

Ple-Please, first, just look at them.

[INTERPRETER SPEAKS GERMAN]

Just look at all of them.

[INTERPRETER SPEAKS GERMAN]

That's the one.

Which photograph is this, Mr. Horn?

[INTERPRETER AND HORN SPEAK GERMAN]

[INTERPRETER] That is Ivan, probably.

Let the record reflect

that the witness selected
Government Exhibit 3E

as the photograph which he identified.

And show it to the camera.

[PEN SCRATCHING]

- [OFFICIAL] Do you have that?
- [CLERK] Yeah.

[OFFICIAL] Okay.

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

[YOUNGER HENRY] Ever so slowly,

the emotion of this long trial
is beginning to show on the faces

of the people who are the closest
to John Demjanjuk:

the members of his immediate family.

His two daughters, Lydia and Irene,
are frustrated, sad, and even angry.

I'm upset. I'm upset about what I'm seeing
with the judges.

[SHEFTEL] The wife of Nishnic,
she came to my room and asked me,

"Explain me, please..."

what... what's going on in the case?

"What's the role of each one of you,
the defense lawyers?"

So, I said to her,

"John Gil is responsible
as far as the Trawniki card is concerned.

Me, the identification."

Then, she asked, "And O'Connor?"

I said,
"O'Connor generally direct, uh, the case."

So, she said,

"So practically, what you're saying,
that we don't need O'Connor."

And then, I jumped on the opportunity.

I said, "Look, you said it",

uh, but, uh, that's more or less, uh...

You... You immediately

"and very quickly understood
what's really going on."

[NEWS FANFARE PLAYS]

The alleged Nazi war criminal,
John Demjanjuk,

who's on trial in Jerusalem,

has sacked his American lawyer

just a week before he testifies
in his own defense.

[O'CONNOR]
All this conspiracy behind my back

when I'm over defending this man
in Germany.

I had some things to say to him.

I had some things to say to him,
and, um...

I lost it.

[REPORTER]
Demjanjuk, who is accused of being

the sadistic Treblinka death camp guard,
Ivan The Terrible,

has fired controversial
New York attorney Mark O'Connor,

but O'Connor refuses to give up the case.

[O'CONNOR]
I let him know that he's a traitor...

and, "How could you abandon me?"

'Cause it was a shock.
I never thought that day would come,

despite the fact that Nishnic

and all these characters,
and Sheftel, and...

they were all working against me.

They were working harder against me
than they were Mickey Shaked.

[REPORTER] First and foremost
on the list of grievances

against attorney Mark O'Connor

is his refusal to be a team player,

to go along with co-counsel Yoram Sheftel.

[O'CONNOR] Sheftel had a plan.

I know he's plotting.

I know he's turning
the family against me.

I know he's doing it because he believes
he's gonna get the money.

It's all about money.

THAT WAS THE BIG GOAL: get O'Connor out.

This Wednesday, an Israeli judge
will resolve an angry dispute

that's been going on now for weeks.

At issue, who will represent retired
Cleveland autoworker John Demjanjuk

for the remainder
of the Nazi war crimes trial in Jerusalem?

[IN HEBREW] I would now like to hear
from the accused himself.

What is your position
with respect to Mr. O'Connor?

Do you wish for him
to continue representing you?

[IN UKRAINIAN] My family has decided
to dismiss Mr. O'Connor.

[IN HEBREW]
The family is not on trial here.

You are on trial here, sir.

What is your decision?

[IN UKRAINIAN] Honorable court,

my decision is to follow
the advice of my family.

I am in a cage. I am in jail.

Therefore,
I must follow the advice of my family.

Whatever they decide, I must do.

[O'CONNOR, IN ENGLISH] He never reacted.
That was the thing that got to me.

Never reacted, never tried to come back.

Never showed any emotion and so on,

except when he turned around and said...

"My family."

THAT WAS ALL HE HAD. TWO WORDS:

"my family."

After I had done all the things
with my practice for five years,

after I'd made these sacrifices

for him and the Ukrainian community,

then he did that.

That, for me,
was the most difficult thing.

I felt the betrayal.

I felt betrayed by him, okay?

He didn't want to face that,

'cause he felt it, I'm sure.

The rest of the family felt nothing
about me.

Nothing.

The Demjanjuk family is staying here
at the American Colony Hotel

in Arab East Jerusalem.

John Jr. tells me that his mother, Vera,
is continuing to hold up okay.

Meanwhile, the defense
is tens of thousands in debt.

Demjanjuk's son-in-law Ed Nishnic
says O'Connor was given a blank check,

but that he never paid the bills.

I was under the impression
that out of the monies

that had been turned over,

that all these bills
were being taken care of, and...

um, only to find out that...

he claims that there wasn't enough money
to cover them.

We don't have money. We don't...
I don't own a home.

[YOUNGER JOHN JR.] You have to understand,
we have nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Coming here to Israel, having
the United States working with Israel,

using Soviet evidence.

You've got three governments going
against one man.

One man with no funding.
Loss is inevitable.

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

[REPORTER, IN HEBREW]
The family of John Demjanjuk

left Israel this Wednesday,

including his son,
two daughters, and grandson.

Before returning to Cleveland, they said

they will continue their efforts
to clear the Demjanjuk name.

[ED, IN ENGLISH] We were
in the Demjanjuk living room.

Mr. D was in Israel.

Irene and her sister came over,

and they says,
"It's time to shut the defense down.

There's no way you're gonna win."

Couldn't give up.

I couldn't give up.

I... I... I simply could not allow this
to happen

under the false pretenses
that I knew took place.

I started my fundraising campaign
in Canada.

In 32 days,

we were in 47 separate cities.

You're not gonna pin me down.

[STAMMERS]
I'm gonna do what I have to do

and how best I know how to do it.

That's why it was like an adventure
for me.

- [REPORTERS CLAMORING]
- Good morning. Uh, my name's Ed Nishnic.

I'm Mr. Demjanjuk's son-in-law, and, uh...

[ED JR.]
I know he worked on it like a madman.

I mean, he would be gone
for weeks at a time,

you know, sometimes a month at a time,
traveling, giving speeches.

Um, you know, doing his work
with the defense fund and everything else.

[ED] I... I was going to all the churches

to discuss whether they can help us.

[REPORTER] All Demjanjuk's friends
and relatives can do

is to come here to their church
in Parma and pray

and also hope that people
will continue to contribute

to the Demjanjuk defense fund.

[GABAY] The community did not want the OSI
to delve into the past

of many individuals

who had a Nazi past.

[YOUNGER ED] Court cases cost money.

Right now, we probably have,

and I wouldn't be exaggerating
to say that,

maybe $500 or $600
to our name to fight with,

where the government
has a blank-check budget.

[TEICHOLZ]
The Demjanjuk defense had connections

with Holocaust revisionists

or anti-Semitic points of view.

Pat Buchanan was declared,
by the National Review,

to be an anti-Semite.

Jerome Brentar was a representative

of the same Catholic charity

that helped Eichmann escape.

James McDonald had given interviews
to Holocaust revisionist organizations.

An axis of people that I always felt...

um, they would have been wise
to distance themselves from,

but which, for whatever reason,
they continued to... um...

You know.

[REPORTER, IN HEBREW] This is
how John Demjanjuk built

his life in prison.

Hundreds of postcards on the walls
from supporters and admirers.

Demjanjuk keeps many ties
with different people

and organizations around the world.

It's a whole lobby.

He has received thousands of letters
and packages to his cell.

[IN ENGLISH] Uh, I got the wall.

I've got the people behind me,
writing letter.

I got a letter, not only from America,

from Canada, from Australia,
from New Zealand, from Germany,

from Belgium, from Russia, from Ukrainian.

I got a letter from...

[SPEAKS UKRAINIAN]

Even from the China,
I got a letter before.

I have a million people behind me here.

[REPORTER, IN HEBREW]
We ask him how come

thousands of people
support Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka?

[IN ENGLISH] I'm "Ivan from Treblinka"?

I'm not even from Treblinka.
I prove it already. Hey?

I'm not against even Prokuror Shaked.

That is his business.

How he against me, I'm not against him,

I'm not against about nobody.

I just wanted to make it...

uh, right, you know?

[IN UKRAINIAN] Justice, that's all.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

[ED, IN ENGLISH] They invited me out
to Mission Viejo, California.

It was a nice gathering of people,

and at that gathering,

a lady who looked like a...
a schoolteacher,

she asked me if I was receiving my mail.

And I says, "Sure, I get my mail.
Do you get your mail?"

It's like, you know, "Duh!"

And then,
I thought about the stack of documents

that was sent to me in an envelope

with no return address.

No notes, no nothing.

Just the document itself.

And then I says, "Oh! So this is...?"

And... And... And she... she says, "Yeah."

She was an Estonian,

and at least,
from these people point of view,

they were afraid they were gonna be
the next target of the OSI.

They could do that to Demjanjuk,

then they could do it
to them just as easy.

She goes, "Why don't you come visit me
when you're out in, uh, Virginia?"

So I did.

We went over her house.

We walked through her kitchen
and into her garage.

And in her garage,

from floor to ceiling...

It would fill this whole room up...

All this room...

Were nothing but boxes of garbage.

And it was all OSI garbage.

[REPORTER] K Street, Washington, DC.

This is the old headquarters of the OSI.

Just across the street
is a McDonald's restaurant.

Strangely, in the late 1980s,

the OSI's janitor
had been dumping garbage

in the McDonald's dumpster.

Unknown to the OSI,

a Demjanjuk sympathizer
was lifting the garbage

and handing it over to the defense.

[ED] And so, I used torent a big Lincoln

and fill the car up with boxes of garbage,

bring it back to where I lived,

and many of the documents were torn.

We had a production line set up

to take all the documents
and tape 'em back together.

Put them together like puzzles
and tape 'em back together.

There was just so much.

And then, you had to be... absorb that all

and then decipher what it really means.

And what it really means

is that there...
There was somethin' rotten going on.

[DOUGLAS] When the case
against Demjanjuk starts to unravel,

one of the things that emerges, of course,

is that the OSI itself had had doubts

about the Ivan the Terrible theory
from pretty early on.

[PARKER] John Demjanjuk is either 6'1"
or he's 5'6",

but there was a discrepancy
of about five or six inches,

one way or the other,
and that was a concern.

[REPORTER] Parker says that concern
was not shared

with the Demjanjuk defense.

So, you have the classic smoking gun

in the form of a memorandum
from one of the lawyers

and the OSI saying,

Uh, "Maybe
he's not Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka."

I have some serious doubts about this."

[REPORTER] Documents found
in the garbage throw new light

on a crucial piece of testimony.

George Garand had sworn an affidavit

saying that Otto Horn
had identified Demjanjuk

as Ivan the Terrible unequivocally.

But this report was found in the garbage.

It painted a very different picture.

[DOUGLAS] Otto Horn, it turns out,

far from first picking out
Demjanjuk's photograph

with absolute certainty,
and saying, "Yep, that's the guy."

Uh, in fact, Horn needs to be prepped.

He needs to have the lawyers for the OSI
kind of direct his attention

and kind of... kind of,
almost like force him and go,

"Isn't that... What about this guy?
How about this guy?

How about... What about this guy here?
This guy looks pretty good."

You know? And it's only then
that Horn ends up identifying him.

So, again,
it ends up being the case that...

what looks like a very probative,
very impressive piece of evidence,

under closer scrutiny,
starts to unravel as well.

[REPORTER]
SHORTLY AFTER 9:00 this morning,

Demjanjuk family members filed the papers
at federal court.

Their complaint charges
the US Justice Department

with suppressing evidence.

This is a copy of the complaint itself.

- [CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING]
- It consists of 678 pages.

Very much new evidence

that was suppressed from the defense team

from the Israeli government since 1979,

by the Office of Special Investigations.

I do remember
that, uh, there was an unfortunate...

um, breach of security.

- [INDISTINCT CHATTER IN DISTANCE]
- Let's do that again.

Loud people in the library, huh? Okay.

Uh, I do remember that there was
an unfortunate breach of security.

Uh, I wasn't there at the time,
but I know about it.

As civil discovery
was conducted back then...

Basically, you gave the defense
what they asked for...

and if they didn't ask for it,
they didn't get it.

And... And OSI was faulted
for... playing...

what we call in American English,

based on our game of baseball,
"hardball," you know?

If they didn't ask for it,
they didn't get it.

Um, and that's what happened.

[REPORTER]
John Demjanjuk Jr. told me today

the documents will have
a major impact on his father's case.

I don't think they want to go ahead

knowing that there's still
garbage floating out there,

that there's documents being withheld
by the Office of Special Investigations.

How can they possibly make a decision,
knowing full well

that all the relevant evidence
isn't before them?

[IN HEBREW]
And back to the Demjanjuk trial,

which reconvened in Jerusalem today
after a month-long recess.

[YOUNGER SHEFTEL] During the last recess
of the honorable court,

the defense got lucky.

And out of the OSI,

documents were leaked to us...

that show, black and white,

that when we presented
the Trawniki photo spread to Otto Horn,

he looked,
and not only didn't he identify Demjanjuk,

he pointed to another photo altogether!

And this material was hidden away from us!

And when the defendant was tried
in the US

and was stripped
of his American citizenship,

his lawyer wasn't aware
this evidence existed.

Who knows if he would even be sitting here
if these documents were known?

[IN ENGLISH] Every person
from the OSI in this case...

is a kind of legal murderer.

No other way to put it.

They knew all along,
Demjanjuk is not Ivan the Terrible,

and they kept their dirty mouths shut,

and they continued to conceal
the evidence which proves that he's not.

- [REPORTERS CLAMORING]
- [CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING]

[YOUNGER HENRY] It's now time
for the defense to make its case

in the Holocaust trial,
and essentially, their argument is this:

that John Demjanjuk
is a victim of mistaken identity,

that he is not Ivan the Terrible,
the death camp guard at Treblinka.

AND THE VERY FIRST WITNESS TODAY:
John Demjanjuk himself.

[REPORTER 1, IN HEBREW]
The defense will begin

its portion of the case this morning.

The courtroom is full
of interested spectators

who returned to the hall
to hear the defendant's testimony.

Dozens of foreign media outlets

also sent their journalists
back into the courtroom.

[REPORTER 2, IN ENGLISH] John Demjanjuk
knows it is his life that is on the line.

[REPORTER 3] Today he begins testifying
in his own defense.

[SHEFTEL] As far as I am concerned,
he would not testify.

But in Israel, refusal to testify

will put him promptly to the gallows.

[REPORTER 4]
When John Demjanjuk takes the stand

inside this convention hall courtroom,

it's possible he will face his accusers

and the judges who heard his case
for one final time.

[LEVIN, IN HEBREW] Very well,
the accused will now testify

on behalf of the defense.

What's your name?

[IN UKRAINIAN] I am John Demjanjuk.

[SUSPENSEFUL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]