ATONING FOR HIS CRIMES

BBC: Demjanjuk facing Germany charges

Alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk is in jail in Munich, facing charges of being an accessory to the deaths of 29,000 Jews in World War II.
The frail 89-year-old arrived in Germany on Tuesday morning after being deported from the US.
He is now in Stadelheim prison, say prosecutors, where he will undergo a medical check and then have his pages-long arrest warrant read out to him.
He denies accusations that he worked as a guard in the Sobibor Nazi death camp.
Mr Demjanjuk, who settled in the US in 1952, says he was captured by the Germans in his native Ukraine during the war and kept as a prisoner of war.
“I am not as naive as to believe that he [Demjanjuk] will spend even one day in prison - but we will get a discussion about justice in post-war Germany, ” according to Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Consistory of Jews in Germany


BBC NEWS 12 May 2009 12:23

MEANWHILE IN GERMANY...


Hitler waxwork attack man fined
The controversial waxwork of Hitler in Berlin
The Hitler waxwork had only just gone on display when it was attacked

A court in Germany has fined a man 900 euros (£800, $1,200) for ripping the head off a waxwork model of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Frank Lachner, 42, damaged the model after pushing past guards when it was displayed at a Berlin museum last year.

Mr Lachner, an ex-policeman, said he had been protesting against the presence of the waxwork 500m (500yds) from a Holocaust memorial.

The museum said the waxwork portrayed a key historical figure.

Now restored, its is back on display behind a glass wall.

It had provoked strong debate in Germany even before it went on display.

Some critics said it was tasteless to put a replica of Hitler on show.

In Germany it is illegal to display Nazi symbols or artworks regarded as glorifying Hitler.

Correspondents say the decision to allow the waxwork was seen as the latest move in the gradual easing of official sensitivity over the Nazis more than 60 years after the end of World War II.