LETTERS

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Continued from Page 6

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passed over with little more
than a one-liner.
Even though the issue was
raised with Jewish News
reporters prior to publication
of the last story, Democratic
candidates for township
trustee were told, "You're not
being covered because you
don't have a contested
primary?'
With all due respect to The
Jewish News, if voters were
made aware they had a choice
of Democrats in November
they might not vote for cer-
tain Republicans in August.
The Democratic candidates'
qualifications should have
been weighed and their opi-
nions aired, just like their
Republican counterparts.
On a positive note, The
Jewish News ought to be pro-
ud of the progress it has
made. I can remember a time
not so long ago when there
was no election coverage at
all:

Albert L. Holtz

West Bloomfield

Candidate
Not Mentioned

I was upset that your July
24 article on Jewish women
in politics neglected to men-
tion Barbara Smith, who is
running for the State
Legislature from West
Bloomfield-Commerce
Township.
Barbara is a Jewish
woman, even if our name
isn't. She has received cam-
paign contributions from over
300 people in the Jewish
community.

Levi F. Smith

West Bloomfield

Editor's note: The focus of the
article was on women behind
the scenes, not candidates.

Justice For
John Demjanjuk

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Now that serious doubt has
arisen in all quarters that
John Demjanjuk was Ivan the
Terrible of Treblinka, the
editor takes the bold position
that he should not be ex-
ecuted (June 12).
Regrettably, the editor goes
on to state that "It seems in-
creasingly clear that he
(Demjanjuk) served the Nazis
by sending Jews to their
death," echoing the shameful
argument of the Israeli pro-
secutor in final summation
before the Israeli Supreme
Court; and concludes that
releasing Mr. Demjanjuk is
an "unsatisfactory choice" for
Israel.
It should be pointed out
that the possibility of Mr.
Demjanjuk's having served as
a guard in Sobibor was in-
vestigated as early as 1976 by

the U.S. Justice Department's
Office of Special Investiga-
tions (OSI). All of the Jewish
survivors of Sobibor were in-
terviewed by the OSI; none of
them identified Mr. Deinjan-
juk as having been a guard
there.
In fact, one survivor who
lived in the guard's barracks
stated that he knew all the
guards and had John Demjan-
juk been a sadistic guard
there he would have recogniz-
ed him.
The central piece of
evidence that would link Mr.
Demjanjuk to Sobibor is the
Trawniki ID card. Its authen-
ticity has been questioned by
several leading forensic docu-
ment experts including Dr.
Julius Grant (famous for
disproving the authenticity of
the Hitler Diaries).
Recently it has been reveal-
ed that in January 1987,
Israeli investigators re-
quested experts of the Ger-
man Federal Office of
Criminal • Investigations
(BKA) to examine the
Trawniki card. After advising
the Israelis that his
preliminary examination
revealed that the card did not
appear authentic, BKA-
expert Dr. - Julius Ferdinand
Werner was told that "no fur-
ther tests were desired"
(Stern, March 5, 1992).
It is well-known that
throughout history the
Jewish people have •
distinguished themselves in
their respect for law and •
justice. Yet, in reading recent
comments in the Jewish press
regarding the Demjanjuk af-
fair, one could get the impres-
sion that this reverence for
justice has been betrayed - the
perception of the Jewish peo- •
ple as a 'people who value law
and humanity over revenge'
may not be quite seemly in
the context of this case.
Perhaps the former vice
president of the Israeli
Supreme Court, Chaim As
Cohen, quoted last April in
the Israeli newspaper •
Hasharon, was apt in his
characterization of the Dem-
janjuk affair as a "spectacle
for the people (in which) .. .
any connection between the
proceeding and justice is
totally coincidental."

Jaroslaw Dobrowolskyj

President, Ukrainian-American
Bar Association of Michigan