Retired Ukranian American auto worker John Demjanjuk was living a peaceful life in Cleveland in the 1980s with a wife and kids. Then in 1985, he was accused of being a notorious gas operator at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust. Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel to stand trial for war crimes. It was a national event, on par with the Adolf Eichmann trial. But during Demjanjuk’s trial, evidence emerged that raised doubts about his guilt. The story is told in a new Netflix documentary series called “The Devil Next Door.”
Journalist Tom Teicholz is featured in that documentary series, and he just wrote a book about this case called “Ivan of the Extermination Camp: How the Trials and Denials of Nazi Collaborator John Demjanjuk Added to Our Understanding of the Holocaust.”