#167 - The Man Who Represented Ivan Demjanjuk (Yoram Sheftel)

Two Nice Jewish Boys

Eytan and Naor

Society & Culture

1.7 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a free democratic state, every person is innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to a fair trial. That seems simple enough. However, sometimes the rule of law doesn’t quite line up so perfectly with our personal sense of judgement. In 1986 a man by the name of John Demjanjuk was extradited from the Cleveland, Ohio to the Israel. Demjanjuk was accused of being Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka - a notorious guard who would torture Jewish prisoners before they entered the gas chambers at the second deadliest Nazi extermination camp. Before Demjanjuk stood trial in Israel, he needed representation. No one in Israel was willing to defend the man that most believed to be one of the cruelest perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Until Yoram Sheftel came along. Today we are joined by Yoram Sheftel to talk about the Demjanjuk case and the new Netflix documentary “The Devil Next Door”.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Aiton Weinstein.
0:01.7	And I'm Naor Menninger, and you're listening to Two Nice Jewish Boys.
0:12.1	This podcast is made in collaboration with the Jewish Journal.
0:15.9	Check them out at Jewishjournal.com.
0:18.3	Also in collaboration with Arutscheva, Israel National News.com.
0:22.8	If you'd like to support the podcast, visit to njb.com slash donate.
0:33.7	In a free democratic state, every person is innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to a fair trial.
0:42.0	That seems simple enough.
0:44.5	However, sometimes the rule of law doesn't quite line up so perfectly with our personal sense of judgment.
0:51.9	In 1986, a man by the name of John Demianyuk was extradited from Cleveland, Ohio
0:58.0	to Israel. Demianyuk was accused of being Ivan the terrible of Treblinka, a notorious guard
1:05.8	who would torture Jewish prisoners before they entered the gas chambers at the second deadliest Nazi
1:12.2	extermination camp. Before Damianuk stood trial in Israel, he needed representation. No one in Israel
1:19.9	was willing to defend the man that most believed to be one of the cruelest perpetrators of
1:25.8	crimes against humanity.
1:27.9	That is, until Yoram Shafhtel came along.
1:31.4	Today we are joined by attorney at law, Yoram Shafthel, to talk about the Demianu case.
1:36.8	Well, first of all, I have to correct your introduction.
1:40.3	Okay.
1:41.3	There was one lawyer which was willing to defend him Yanuk. However, he wanted up front
1:51.1	$1 million plus personal bodyguard, plus a transformation of his family outside of Israel during
2:00.5	the entire trial, and on and on and on,
	...

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