16 Friday, March 28, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS NEWS We've closed our Farmington Hills Store and we're U.S. Attorney May Represent Demjanjuk E-X-1 3 -11-N-D-11-N-G OUR DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM LOCATION HUNTER BLVD. SCANDIA DOWN SHOP —1 , 0 I px v0 o v SN‘ a. ¢ Z SOUTH WOODWARD qlsi skt• t. V 14 N%s z 3 0 cc ea PARK PLAZA SHOPS SOUTHFIELD Scandia Down Shopi Downtown Birmingham Birmingham Park Plaza 255 South Woodward at Brown Street 258-6670 WHEN YOU THINK AUDI, THINK BILL COOK Volume Selling Means... VOLUME SAVINGS! PORSCHE 471.0044 +AUDI 37911 GRAND RIVER AVE., FARMINGTON HILLS Jerusalem (JTA) — The Justice Ministry is considering a request by an American at- torney, Mark O'Connor, to represent alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk when he stands trial in an Israeli court. O'Connoer, who came to Israel last week, submitted a formal request to Meir Gabai, Director General of the Justice Ministry and Dennis Fouldman, head of the Ministry's Interna- tional Department. Justice Minister Moshe Nissim will consult with the Na- tional Council of the Chamber of Advocates. The question is whether a foreign attorney not a member of the Israel Bar may argue a case in an Israeli court. If O'Connor's request is denied, an Israeli defense at- torney will be appointed for Demjanjuk. But it appeared likely that the Justice Ministry will allow O'Connor to plead. A West German attorney was per- mitted to defend Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann at his trial in Jerusalem in 1961. O'Connor told reporters that his defense of Demjanjuk will be based on evidence that the Ukrainian-born former U.S. citizen who was extradited to Israel is not the Treblinka death camp guard the inmates called "Ivan the Terrible" because of his relentless brutality. According to the American at- torney, he has '.'solid evidence" to support Demjanjuk's claim that he is the victim of mistaken identity. He said that once he is granted the right to appear for his client, he will travel to Europe to secure further evi- dence. As the case is shaping up, Demjanjuk's trial will pit the re- cent testimony of Treblinka sur- vivors who have positively iden- tified Demjanjuk from photo- graphs, against testimony taken from other survivors many years ago that the guard known as "Ivan the Terrible" was in fact killed during an inmate uprising at Treblinka in 1943. Evidence to that effect has surfaced in Israel since Demjan- juk was brought here. The latest information that may cast doubt On Demjanjuk's identity is the testimony given under oath by a Treblinka survivor, Elias Rosenberg, to the Jewish Historical Documentation Center in Vienna in 1947. Rosenberg appeared before Tuvia Friedman who ran the center on behalf of Hagana and later achieved prominence as a Nazi hunter from the documents amassed at his Haifa-based ar- chives. His testimony was witnessed by Dr. Otto Schushny and Dr. Kurt Weigel. According to Rosenberg, the sadistic guard who operated the Treblinka gas chambers was killed by Jews in August, 1943. Friedman has a signed copy of Rosenberg's five-page testi- mony, given in German. Earlier, a 20-year-old report was found in the Bar Ilan University archives. It contains the testimony of another sur- vivor, Abraham Goldfarb, given to a student researcher em- ployed by the Bar Ilan Holo- caust Research Center which in the 1960s compiled an oral history of Holocaust events from survivors who witnessed them. According to Goldfarb, who died last year, "Ivan the Terri- ble" and another guard were killed by Jews who stormed the gas chambers in 1943 and their bodies thrown into the crema- torium furnace. The Justice Ministry has refused comment. But the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial archives dismissed the report as unreliable. Peres Supports U.S. Action Against Libya Jerusalem (JTA) — The U.S. Navy's exercise of the right of free passage in the Gulf of Sidra was hailed by Israel last Tues- day as the correct way to deal with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. American and Libyan forces clashed in the disputed waters. Prime Minister Shimon Peres declared in an official statement that it was the right to the U.S. to defend maritime routes. Libya claims the entire gulf is its territorial waters. The U.S. and virtually every other coun- try recognize only the 12-mile limit. Peres denounced Libya as the spearhead of international ter- rorism, a source of violence and a threat to is neighbors. Only action such as that initiated by the U.S. can cope with such behavior, he said. The Foreign Ministry de- scribed the American challenge to Libya as an act of self defense. Political sources in Jerusalem said they were en- couraged by the American ap- proach. According to Zeev Schiff, a respected Israeli military analyst, the key ques- tion in the Gulf of Sidra action is the degree of Soviet involv- ment there. Schiff noted that Soviet ex- perts probably were present at the SA-5 missile sites in Libya when they were fired at U.S. Navy aircraft over the gulf. "It is hard to assume that the firing of the missiles at American targets (last Monday) took place without the knowledge of the Soviets. The only question is whether the Soviets gave their approval to the attack," he wrote. According to "Schiff, the. Soviet presence poses a problem for the U.S. since it is likely to limit its readiness to attack targets with Soviet presence.