Expert cannot confirm Demjanjuk signature

A handwriting expert witness failed to confirm whether a signature on a Nazi death camp ID card was that of John Demjanjuk. In testimony at one of the last sensational war crimes trials in Germany, handwriting expert Beate Wuellbeck last week told the Munich state court that not enough letters were clear on the Sobibor identification card and thus she could not verify the authenticity of the signature.

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Jewish Journal

February 9, 2011

A handwriting expert witness failed to confirm whether a signature on a Nazi death camp ID card was that of John Demjanjuk.

In testimony at one of the last sensational war crimes trials in Germany, handwriting expert Beate Wuellbeck last week told the Munich state court that not enough letters were clear on the Sobibor identification card and thus she could not verify the authenticity of the signature.

Demjanjuk, 90, is charged as being an accessory to the murder of 29,700 Jews at the Sobibor death camp in Poland in 1943. He is suspected of being a brutal guard trained at the nearby Trawniki camp.

Meanwhile, for the first time since the trial began in November 2009, members of Demjanjuk’s immediate family have attended the proceedings. On Wednesday, his daughter Irene Nishnic reportedly brought a white rose into the courtroom. A grandson also reportedly attended.

Demjanjuk, a native of Ukraine, immigrated to the United States after World War II. He was deported in May 2009 to Germany to stand trial. Spanish courts recently requested that he be extradited to stand trial for war crimes there as well.

According to reports, a decision in the Munich case could come this March.