Update: (May 11, 2009): Accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk was deported by the United States to Germany to face charges that he helped murder 29,000 Jews while working as a death camp guard during World War II. 

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New York, NY, April 3, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the long-awaited extradition of Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk, who was scheduled to be flown to Germany on Sunday where he is expected to face criminal charges in the murders of 29,000 Jews.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement: 

This is a meaningful day for Holocaust survivors and the families of victims and for World War II veterans who have waited many long years to see justice finally served in the case of John Demjanjuk for his unspeakable crimes against humanity.

 

The Justice Department was right to ignore Demjanjuk's last-ditch efforts to further delay his deportation on "humanitarian grounds," an ironic and cynical plea from a war criminal who certainly extended no such right to his victims.  Those who perished under his watch were forever denied the comforts of freedom that Demjanjuk has so long enjoyed.

 

John Demjanjuk never deserved the privilege of citizenship in this country.  He has hidden from justice and his horrible crimes long enough.

In Germany, Demjanjuk faces an arrest warrant issued by the Munich Prosecutor's Office for his role in the imprisonment and murder of 29,000 Jews at the Nazi-run Sobibor death camp in Poland, where he served as a guard in 1943.