Press release: Eighteen Dutch nationals are co-prosecutors in the Demjanjuk trial
Dutch co-plaintiffs put faces to the names of their murdered family members
Eighteen Dutch nationals will act as Nebenkläger, co-plaintiffs, thereby playing an extraordinary role in the criminal prosecution of John (Iwan) Demjanjuk, which will probably be the last significant trial of a former Nazi.
Demjanjuk’s trial begins on 30 November 2009 in Munich, Germany. He has been charged as an accessory to the murder of at least 27,900 Jews that had been transported to the Sobibor extermination camp from the concentration camp in Westerbork. At least 170,000 Jews, over 33,000 of whom were from the Netherlands, were murdered in Sobibor in just 18 months.
More information regarding the Nebenkläger, the extermination camp Sobibor, and the Sobibor Foundation [Stichting Sobibor] is available in the press folder.
In prosecuting homicide cases, including those where the charge is being an accessory to those crimes, German criminal law assigns the role of co-plaintiffs to the crime victims’ immediate family (parents, siblings and spouses). Like Public Prosecutors, co-plaintiffs can present witness testimony, deliver closing addresses and determine the severity of the sentence.
In addition to the seventeen co-plaintiffs who will attend the trial in Munich, five others will be represented as co-plaintiff by German attorneys instead of travelling to Germany. A number of the co-plaintiffs are prepared to act as media spokespeople.
Stichting Sobibor is a foundation that presents educational programmes, preserves documentation and organises commemorations and journeys in order to honour the memory of those murdered in Sobibor. The foundation is supporting the activities.
Stichting Sobibor
Chair: Ms Jetje Manheim
info@stichtingsobibor.nl
jetje@stichtingsobibor.nl
Press contacts
Rozette Kats
rozette@stichtingsobibor.nl
and
Jeannette Klusman
jeannetteklusman@stichtingsobibor.nl
+31(0)20 624 85 82
+31(0)61 218 26 09