The Trial of Ivan the Terrible: State of Israel Vs. John Demjanjuk

New York City attorney Teicholz's powerfully dramatic reporting lifts the 1987 trial of convicted mass murderer John Demjanjuk to the level of the Adolf Eichmann trial in its moral intensity. A Ukrainian-born Cleveland factory worker, Demjanjuk was stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported to Israel, accused of being ``Ivan the Terrible,'' sadistic Nazi butcher of the Treblinka death camp who personally murdered or tortured tens of thousands. At the trial, which the author attended, many survivors of Treblinka testified that Demjanjuk was Ivan. In his defense, he claimed it was a case of mistaken identity, yet the overwhelming weight of the evidence, as presented here, attests to his guilt. Teicholz clears up apparent inconsistencies in the documents that helped convict Demjanjuk. His moving account towers above the media's superficial reportage on the trial. (Nov.)