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Demjanjuk Backer
Supports Charges
New York (JTA) — A
longtime supporter of con-
victed war criminal John
Demjanjuk wrote a letter to
a German archive 10 years
ago asking for Mr. Demjan-
juk's "original military card
issued in Camp Treblinka."
The letter seems to support
charges that Mr. Demjanjuk
did indeed serve as a guard
in Treblinka. The Ukrainian
emigre, who was convicted
in 1988 of being the noto-
rious Treblinka guard
known as "Ivan the Terri-
ble," has repeatedly denied
ever having been at the
camp.
The letter might also
refute new evidence un-
covered in long- secret Soviet
archives suggesting that a
guard by the name of Ivan
Marchenko was in fact "Ivan
the Terrible."
Jerome Brentar, a
Cleveland travel agent de-
scribed in various news-
paper articles as Mr. Dem-
janjuk's main financial sup-
porter, wrote the letter in
German to a war research
facility in Munich called the
Institute for Contemporary
History.
The 1982 letter was ob-
tained by Charles Allen Jr.,
a researcher and writer on
Nazi crimes. It was publish-
ed in the latest edition of
Reform Judaism, a publica-
tion of the Union of Ameri-
can Hebrew Congregations.
Questions about whether
Mr. Demjanjuk, a retired
Cleveland autoworker, had
ever been at Treblinka arose
in the past year and turned
the case against him askew.
He had been sentenced to
death by an Israeli court for
war crimes committed at the
Treblinka and Sobibor death
camps.
The Israeli High Court of
Justice is reviewing the case
and a federal appeals court
in Ohio this year named a
special investigator to study
whether the Justice
Department withheld
possibly exculpatory
evidence in his
denaturalization pro-
ceedings.
Another letter has been
made available to the Jew-
ish Telegraphic Agency that
was written to Mr. Brentar
by the attorney for Kurt
Franz, the commandant of
Treblinka who is serving a
life sentence in Germany for
war crimes.
The attorney, Rudolf
Stratmann, wrote in
January 1990 that his client
did not know anyone named
Marchenko.
"But Franz does not re-
member if in this context the
name Demjanjuk was men-
tioned," Mr. Stratmann
wrote.
A Jewish witness who was
called in the Demjanjuk trial
wrote a letter, also obtained
by JTA, which described
Franz and "Ivan the Ter-
rible" as regular compa-
nions.
This new information was
made available by the World
Jewish Congress, "in light of
the publicity already given
to the other material," said
Elan Steinberg, WJC ex-
ecutive director.
Mr. Brentar, in his letter
to the Munich research
facility, derided one of the
key pieces of evidence
against Demjanjuk — a
military card from an SS
He had been
sentenced to
death by an
Israeli court for
war crimes
committed at
Treblinka and
Sobibor.
training camp at Trawniki,
Poland.
He said it was "obviously
forged by the Soviets" and
tried to tie the case against
Mr. Demjanjuk to Simon
Wiesenthal, the Vienna-
based Nazi-hunter. Mr.
Wiesenthal had nothing to
do with obtaining the card.
Mr. Brentar wrote that
Mr. Wiesenthal
"persecuted" Mr. Demjan-
juk "in a totally unjustified
way." He wrote that Mr.
Demjanjuk's "indictment is
based, inter alia, on service
identification obtained
which was falsified by the
Soviets, which Wiesenthal
gave."
Mr. Brentar wrote that it
would be "very important,"
to find "Demjanjuk's
original military card issued
in the Treblinka camp, to
compare it to the one for
Soviet Wiesenthal's clique,
which was accepted by the
Cleveland court."
Mr. Brentar sent the letter
to what he thought was a