Cleveland, OH, February 21, 2002 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) praised today's order by a federal court judge stripping accused Nazi guard and longtime Cleveland resident John Demjanjuk of his U.S. citizenship. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Matia ruled that Demjanjuk had lied about his role in the Holocaust on his original application for citizenship to this country.

"John Demjanjuk never deserved access to the benefits and privileges of citizenship. Today the atrocities of his past have finally caught up with him," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. "For decades, Demjanjuk remained beyond the reach of international justice for his well-documented complicity in the Holocaust while using his citizenship as a protective shield. Demjanjuk enjoyed all the benefits of freedom in a free land after having denied his own victims the dignity of their lives. This was a case of justice long delayed, yet some measure of justice for his victims is better than none."

Further commenting on today's decision, Howard A. Levy, ADL Cleveland Regional Chairman, and Bettysue Feuer, ADL Regional Director, issued to the following statement:

This is an important victory for the victims of the Holocaust. As we move further away from the events of that time, many people tend to diminish the suffering and the anguish of those caught up in the web of the Nazi regime. These deadly acts took place with the complicity of many people. The U.S. should never allow participants in these events of horror to remain in our country through the manipulation of our laws. We applaud and commend Judge Matia for his decision in finding that Demjanjuk served the Nazi regime in many concentration camps and was a willing participant in the process that asphyxiated thousands of Jews at Sobibor.

Matia's ruling proved that our government's perseverance in pursuing Demjanjuk was warranted and justified. We commend the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations and its staff for their successful efforts in bringing Demjanjuk to justice.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.