Defending 'Ivan the Terrible': The Conspiracy to Convict John Demjanjuk [Hardcover]

Yoram Sheftel (Author), Haim Watzman (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

Real-life courtroom drama that exposes a shocking international conspiracy.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Hebrew

Product Details

• Hardcover: 445 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing; 1St Edition edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895264587
• ISBN-13: 978-0895264589
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,627,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vital reading for seekers of Holocaust justice., August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Defending 'Ivan the Terrible': The Conspiracy to Convict John Demjanjuk (Hardcover)

We tend to forget that charging anyone with a crime is only the beginning of the justice process: then there must be a trial to decide whether the accused is innocent or guilty. Show trials, staged for political purposes, are not concerned with guilt or innocence but with turning on a performance that will satisfy crowd emotions. Yoram Sheftel's book describes, with graphic inside detail, how a show trial nearly succeeded in hanging an innocent man accused of being a vicious concentration camp guard. Perhaps because Shoftel is a lawyer and not a political scientist, "Defending 'Ivan the Terrible'" dosn't explain the socio-political background equally well. It can be read as an exciting (although wordy) courtroom drama in which both the US and Israeli establishments are caught abusing power and the wrong man almost hangs. However, the book will make more sense if it is read against the background of the antagonism between secular Zionism and religious Judaism, for example, as illustrated by the Kastner scandal.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a story of government deceit to rival Ruby Ridge and Waco, December 19, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Defending 'Ivan the Terrible': The Conspiracy to Convict John Demjanjuk (Hardcover)

The author of this book is a very courageous Israeli lawyer who labored for more than eight years to prove that a naturalized American citizen of Ukrainian descent, John Demjanjuk, was "railroaded" by the American and Israeli governments, with help from Germany and Poland. It is a story of government deceit and coverup which rivals and in some ways surpasses both Waco and Ruby Ridge. The OSI in our justice department and the Israeli government needed a conviction, and they didn't care that their "vi

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Kangaroo Courtroom, May 11, 2006

By 

Truth Seeker - See all my reviews

This review is from: Defending 'Ivan the Terrible': The Conspiracy to Convict John Demjanjuk (Hardcover)

"Defending Ivan the Terrible" is a book about retired Cleveland auto worker John Demjanjuk, who was accused of participating in [...] war crimes. Due to the false accusation, the Demjanjuk family went through 14 years of Hell.

This book was written by Yoram Sheftel, Demjanjuk's Israeli defense attorney, an ardent nationalist who for a time became the most hated man in Israel.

Israeli attorney Sheftel became interested in the case because,

"Throughout my 10 years of work, I had not come across a single instance when Israel Police had conducted a proper photo spread in the absence of a defense lawyer on behalf of the suspect. Hundreds of Supreme Court rulings invalidated photo spreads that had only a fraction of the faults found in every one of the spreads the prosecution was basing itself on."

The anti-establishment Sheftel had developed a basic distrust of the authorities responsible for criminal investigations, particularly the police. His motive for getting involved was that he wanted to publicly expose their improper actions. Sheftel would not have participated if he had believed Demjanjuk was actually guilty.

Sheftel became chief defense counsel, in contradiction to his original intention. So, Demjanjuk, who was accused of murdering 900,000 Jews, depended on a Jew to save his life.

I wonder what compensation Demjanjuk received for his troubles. Apparently it was considerable, but none of it went to reimburse the owner of a travel agency who worked tirelessly to lobby the media and Congress in Demjanjuk's behalf. He later sued Demjanjuk for almost $100,000 advanced for airline tickets.

This book would make a great movie. What more could you want? Two men, each conditioned to hate the other's origins, yet drawn together in a life-and-death struggle. A frame-up, a cover-up, exotic setting, passionate courtroom drama, struggle between good and evil, a probable [...] of one of the defense attorneys, and a love story (Sheftel got married during the wait between appeal and verdict-and quickly got divorced.)

I highly recommend it. The reader will learn a lot about communism, injustice, kangaroo courts, show trials, and the reliability of the eyewitness testimony of holocaust survivors.