THE JEWISH NEWS

ts

Jim/

EAR
IN
REVIEW

GARY ROSENBLATT

0 0 0

Editor

1

5411114441"
r ,
a ir
Ar7
40
Imr."'"1".-"
/VW,/ ifinaZiff
4;9;3 , IV"

1,1011,

•

4,

.e. ,Ar
9..e..,,, e4r

oftveolinesamormirwamorimorp.eimmoms

The Jewish calendar year 5747 was, in a
sense, The Year of the Trial, as attention foc-
used on courtrooms in Washington, Jerusalem
and Lyon, France.
Two trials saw aging men accused of Nazi
atrocities. But it was more than John Demj an-
juk, allegedly Ivan the Thrrible, and Klaus Bar-
bie, the Butcher of Lyon, on the stand — it was
the world facing up to the reality, the tragedy
and the inhumanity of the Holocaust.
Barbie, 73, was found guilty on all counts of
crimes against humanity, including the arrest
and deportation of 44 Jewish children in Izieu
village, near Lyon, in April 1944. All perished
at Auschwitz. He was sentenced to life im-
prisonment, the maximum penalty under
French law. Demjanjuk's fate remains in doubt,
but the first major Nazi war trial in Israel in
25 years stirred painful memories for survivors
and spurred intense interest among a genera-
tion of Israelis born after World War II. Dem-
j anjuk is charged with committing atrocities
at the Treblinka death camp, where 900,000
Jews were murdered. He insists that he is not
the infamous "Ivan."
In Washington, when 32-year-old former
civilian Navy analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard
was sentenced to life imprisonment for spying
on the United States for Israel, a complex chain
of events, and emotions, was begun in both
countries.
"I was not intending to hurt the United
States," said Pollard, "but to help an ally. What
I did may benefit this country in the long run."
Jewish hero or American traitor?
Even as Jews in this country debated the
Pollard case, many in Israel took up his cause
and collected funds on his behalf.

JONATHAN JAY POLLARD was sentenced to life

imprisonment in February for selling U.S. secrets to Israel. Was
he an American traitor or Jewish hero? U.S.-Israel relations
Amy SaJganik
were rocked by the case.

TUC

ncTonn- ICAMICLI , AIMAIC GO