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Demjanjuk Deportation Halted

89-year-old Nazi guard was to stand trial in Germany.

John Demjanjuk, the former Nazi concentration camp guard accused of assisting in the murder of 29,000 people during World War II, was removed from his suburban Cleveland home today in a wheelchair and taken into federal custody—before a federal appeals court delayed his deportation to Germany. The retired auto worker’s case has roiled the Jewish community for decades: In 1977, he was extradited to Israel and sentenced to death before the Israeli Supreme Court overturned his conviction; in 2002, his U.S. citizenship was revoked. The family of Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1952, says chronic disorders and severe pain make him too weak to travel, but a former federal prosecutor who handled the case tells The Plain Dealer: “If we want to prevent future genocides, then we must prosecute those who commit the crime until their last dying day.”