1. Pursuit of justice: the trial of John Demjanjuk Lesson 4 materials
Justice achieved?
Pursuit of justice: the trial of John Demjanjuk
Lesson 4 materials

2. Justice achieved? Preparation:
On the following slides are 12 cards to be used in lesson 4
Print these and cut them along the dotted lines.

3. ‘It doesn’t matter if he gets a day in jail or life: the verdict is what counts, the verdict of history, that people like him made the Holocaust happen’
The Telegraph, December 2010
Helen Hyde
‘My family was unable to defend itself...If Demjanjuk is found guilty then he should be given the toughest sentence’
The Guardian, November 2009
David Van Huiden

4. Online response to the newspaper article ‘I want to see this man brought to justice’. The Telegraph, January 2010
‘The war is over 60 years ago, Demjanjuk should have been left alone...60 years ago, it's over, and it should be let go’
‘The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers and old age should not afford protection to those who committed such heinous crimes. In addition, we must remember our obligation to the Nazis’ victims to try and find the perpetrators and hold them accountable for their crimes’
Ephraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. January 2011

5. ‘I don't care if he goes to prison or not - the trial is what matters to me. I want the truth. The world should find out how it was at Sobibor. He should confess, because he knows so much. He's the last living perpetrator from Sobibor’
Thomas Blatt, Sobibor survivor. Spiegel Online, May 2009
‘You don’t let people, even if they were only junior staff, get away from responsibility’
Yehuda Bauer, Historian. The Guardian, March 2012

6. ‘Societies that claim to be based on the rule of law and on respect for human rights have an obligation to punish states and individuals who challenge that order’
David Cesarani, Historian. Holocaust Encyclopedia: W. Laqueur. April 2001
‘This is a terrible decision, he was convicted of accessory to murder of nearly 30,000 people. He belongs in jail’
Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. Channel 4 News. May 2011

7. ‘...while no trial can bring back those that were murdered, holding those responsible to justice has an important moral and educational role in society’
Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem. The Jerusalem Post, May 2011
‘(The trial) gives a message to the world that genocide will be punished’
Bialowitz, survivor. The Guardian, January 2010

8. ‘How can the gravity of the offence be signified in a sentence on a sick, 89-year-old man? What punishment can match the crime that will not also dismay those with a spirit of compassion? Alternatively, if the court shows mercy...he will receive such a mild sentence as to make the whole business seem ridiculous’
David Cesarani, Historian. The Independent December 2009
‘In addition to serving the quest for justice, the trial of Demjanjuk will hopefully stand as a reminder to future perpetrators of such crimes that the passage of time will not allow them to escape punishment’
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Press release May 2011

9. Justice achieved?
Lesson plan and materials created by Emma O’Brien and Darius Jackson
© Emma O’Brien and Darius Jackson, 2015, All Rights Reserved.
Additional editing by Andy Pearce
Artwork developed from artwork created for the Centre by Cheryl Lowe
All quotes are attributed
Thanks go to Dame Helen Hyde for sharing her trial notes, unpublished memoir and personal reflections.
The Pursuit of justice material is shared for educational purposes with the permission of Judith Aschkenasy and Dame Helene Hyde.