Black was particularly intrigued by the work of historian Mike MacQueen: Peter Black, conversation recounted in interviews with author, 2017, 2018.
One was the protocol of an interview with Streibel himself: Karl Streibel interview, Hamburg, West Germany, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Streibel had also described one of the most dreadful events of the Holocaust: “Trawniki,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, website of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Black found a statement from a second guard: Peter Black, donated files, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
“What was Trawniki?” a prosecutor had once asked a witness in the Liudas Kairys case: United States v. Liudas Kairys.
Black found the statements and interrogations of former Trawniki men particularly helpful: Peter Black, donated files, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Chapter Twelve
A California jury had acquitted four white police officers: Seth Mydans, “The Police Verdict: Los Angeles Policemen Acquitted in Taped Beating,” New York Times, April 30, 1982.
He stood up and offered Reimer his hand, an excruciating pleasantry: Transcript of sworn interview, Jakob Reimer.
“There’s something about the man who pointed to his head that you haven’t told me?” Rosenbaum was fishing again: Transcript of sworn interview, Jakob Reimer; audio of interview excerpts, courtesy of Eli Rosenbaum.
Chapter Thirteen
Years later, one historian would call Globocnik “the vilest individual in the vilest organization ever known”: Gregor Joseph Kranjc, To Walk with the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation 1941–1945, Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2013.
…he was an intrepid thirty-seven-year-old from Vienna with slicked hair, a long face, and a fanatical devotion to the Nazi Party: Peter Black, “Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution.”
But Globocnik had soldiered on, focused and fearless, risking prison time to spread Nazi propaganda: Joseph Poprzeczny, Hitler’s Man in the East: Odilo Globocnik, Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2004.
In July 1941, Himmler gave Globocnik the go-ahead to build a massive concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin: Peter Black, “Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution”; Tomasz Kranz, “They Arrived at the Ghetto and Went into the Unknown.”
“Gentlemen,” Globocnik would say later, “if ever a generation will come after us”: Paul R. Bartrop, Resisting the Holocaust: Upstanders, Partisans and Survivors, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2016.
In late summer 1941, Jakob Reimer arrived at Trawniki in a convoy of seventy captured Soviet soldiers: Steinhart, “The Chameleon of Trawniki.”
If the Germans discovered his rank, Reimer knew there would be no mercy: United States v. Jack Reimer.
Some received more base pay than junior Reich German Waffen-SS men: Government’s post-trial brief, United States v. Jack Reimer.
Early one morning, a company of Trawniki men climbed onto SS trucks: United States v. Jack Reimer.
It was the assembly-line killing that Globocnik had imagined: Peter Black, “Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution”; “Odilo Globocnik,” Yad Vashem, SHOA Resource Center, the International School for Holocaust Studies.
Chapter Fourteen
The largest ghetto in German-occupied Poland had once confined more than four hundred thousand people: “Warsaw,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, website of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
…the inhabitants of the ghetto had fled to a labyrinth of dugouts: Marci Shore, “The Jewish Hero History Forgot,” New York Times, April 18, 2013.
The inhabitants of the ghetto, with some support from Polish resistance fighters, attacked: Alexandra Richie, “The Jews Who Fought Back: The Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,” History Extra, April 19, 2019, www.historyextra.com.
Jakob Reimer needed a break: Peter Black, “Lease on Life.”
…in July 1943, his commanders gave him two weeks off with pay: Transcript of sworn interview, Jakob Reimer, 1992.
But Reimer opted to find his sister in the Ukrainian countryside: Government’s post-trial brief, United States v. Jack Reimer.
In Trawniki, Reimer started making plans for a new life after the war: United States v. Jack Reimer.
In 1944, he applied for German citizenship and was recommended for immediate naturalization: Jakob Reimer, immigration file, US Department of Justice.
Chapter Sixteen
From the deck of the USNS General R. M. Blatchford, she looked across the Halifax harbor: NavSource Online: Carl R. Jr. Friberg, “USNS General R.M. Blatchford (T-AP-153),” Photograph, NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive.
A conscientious worker whose concern for his job takes priority over personal interest: Jakob Reimer, immigration file.
…he had been only a guard-soldier and interpreter, and later a paymaster in the Trawniki administration: United States v. Jack Reimer.
Chapter Seventeen
…a retired machinist living in the suburbs of Chicago: Matt O’Connor, “Hajda Was Nazi Camp Guard, Court Told,” Chicago Tribune, March 18, 1997; United States v. Haida, 135 F.3d 439 (7th Cir. 1998).
White had also identified Trawniki man Wasyl Lytwyn: “Ex-Nazi SS Officer Leaves the Country,” Chicago Tribune, December 16, 1995.
One day in the spring of 1942, about twenty to thirty of us SS men were placed into motor vehicles and driven from Lublin: Transcript of eyewitness statement, Nikolai Leon’tev, 1964, United States v. Jack Reimer.
Black picked up another eyewitness statement, also taken by the Soviets in 1964: Transcript of eyewitness statement, M. E. Korzhikov, 1964, United States v. Jack Reimer.
…Reimer had appeared in his bedroom slippers on the front porch of his house in Lake Carmel and complained to a reporter from New York Magazine: Goldberg, “The Nazi Next Door.”
Reimer had been deployed to three Jewish ghettos to participate in mass deportation operations: United States v. Jack Reimer.
…Black and Stutman settled into a conference room at the US Attorney’s Office: Transcript of deposition of Jakob Reimer, office of the United States District Court Southern District of New York, Office of Special Investigations, US Department of Justice, 1997.
“There comes a time after the most horrible acts when the possibility of reconciliation outweighs any possible need for retribution”: David Margolick, “The Long and Lonely Journey of Ramsey Clark,” New York Times, June 14, 1991.
Chapter Eighteen
…a frontier-fortress outpost built in the 1600s to protect Russia from the Crimean Tatars: Dan Moody, “Penza: One of Russia’s Most Historic and Fascinating Cities,” Russia Beyond, December 5, 2012.
Drug traffickers and mob bosses had commandeered much of Russia: Lee Hockstader, “Russia’s Criminal Condition,” Washington Post, February 26, 1995.
…violent criminals known as Vory v Zakone who had murdered bankers and businessmen: Michael Schwirtz, “Vory y Zakone Has Hallowed Place in Russian Criminal Lore,” New York Times, July 29, 2008.
Tourists had also been targeted, particularly on the Trans-Siberian Railway and other remote routes: Uli Schmetzer, “Gangs Terrorize Famed Siberian Train,” Chicago Tribune, November 17, 1993.
As the train to Penza rumbled through the Russian countryside: David Rich, conversation recounted in interview with author, 2018.
“I’m with the United States Department of Justice,” Stutman began, speaking slowly to give the interpreter time to convert the words to Russian: Transcript of interview, January 5, 1998, Penza, Russia, United States v. Jack Reimer.
…Neal Sher had gone to New York to meet in chambers with the judge and defense attorney: Neal Sher, conversation recounted in interview with author, 2017.
…who had grown up in New York City during the height of the Cold War: Susan Sachs, “Trial Is Over for a Man Accused in
War Crimes,” New York Times, August 20, 1998.
Chapter Nineteen
…an average guy in comfortable American footwear: “Nazi Guard Hides Face at N.Y. Hearing,” New York Post, August 4, 1998.
“In Operation Reinhard, which lasted from March 1942 until December 1943, the Nazis killed an estimated 1.7 million Jews,” Stutman began: Trial transcript, United States v. Jack Reimer.
Stutman had read up on Clark’s involvement in the defense of Karl Linnas: Kenneth B. Noble, “U.S. Deports Man Condemned to Die by Soviet Union,” New York Times, April 21, 1987.
While awaiting trial, Linnas died of natural causes in a prison hospital in Leningrad: Thom Shanker, “Linnas Dies in Soviet Union,” Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1987.
Clark had defended other high-profile and controversial clients: Jennifer Latson, “A Murder That Shocked the World, at Sea and on Stage,” Time, October 7, 2015.
After court, Sydnor and Stutman met for dinner at Windows on the World on the top of the World Trade Center: Charlie Sydnor, conversation recounted in interview with author, 2017.
Chapter Twenty
At seventeen, Sophie Degan had been taken to the training camp to sort the belongings of the dead: Ellen Chubin, conversation recounted in interview with author, 2018.
…Chubin stole a glance at Reimer, who had stared straight ahead for much of the morning as the first survivor took the witness stand: “Holocaust Victims Testify to Horrors,” New York Daily News, August 11, 1998.
Sixty-eight-year-old Samuel Hilton, an accountant from Arizona, had been a boy of thirteen when the SS ordered every remaining Jew in the Warsaw ghetto to report for deportation: Trial transcript, United States v. Jack Reimer.
Chapter Twenty-One
Reimer wore a knit tie and striped shirt, a most ordinary American: Saundra Mandel, “Holocaust Survivors Attend Opening of Former Nazi’s Trial,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 5, 1998.
For more than two days on the witness stand, Reimer had spun a hard-knock story before the judge: Trial transcript, United States v. Jack Reimer.
“You should get an electric chair!” a woman had called out the day before when Reimer stepped down from the stand, carrying a batch of legal folders: “Court Spectators Rip Accused Nazi,” New York Daily News, August 18, 1998.
…Reimer was nearing eighty, with stooped shoulders and a cough that had developed after hours on the witness stand: Steve Lipman, “Gov’t Pokes Holes in Reimer’s Story,” New York Jewish Week, August 21, 1998.
During a break, Suzanne Stutman pulled her husband into an empty corner in the back of the courtroom and touched his hand: Suzanne Stutman, conversation recounted in interview with author, 2018.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“It seems that there is always some crime, some image, perhaps from our latest case,” Rosenbaum had told a Jewish congregation in Richmond, Virginia, just before the start of the Reimer hearing: Audio of remarks, Temple Beth-El, Richmond, Virginia, April 19, 1998, courtesy of Eli Rosenbaum.
That same year, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati had lambasted OSI for its handling of the case: Stephen Labaton, “Judges Assail U.S. Handling of Demjanjuk,” New York Times, November 18, 1993.
“Prosecutorial misconduct,” a three-judge panel had bluntly declared: John Demjanjuk, Petitioner-appellant, v. Joseph Petorvsky, et al., Respondents-appellees, 10 F. 3d 338 (6th Cir. 1994).
Eli Rosenbaum had picked it up in Tel Aviv and placed it in a waterproof container: Eli Rosenbaum, memorandum, “Subject: Transporting Four Trawniki Cards from Israel to Washington,” 2000, John Demjanjuk file, US Department of Justice.
When Rosenbaum reopened the case against Demjanjuk, the editorial board at the Washington Post had called the move “correct, even courageous”: “Mr. Demjanjuk’s Citizenship,” editorial, Washington Post, May 22, 1999.
But only his son and son-in-law sat at the defense table alongside Tigar: George J. Tanber, “Suspected Nazi Guard Is Prisoner of Past,” Toledo Blade, June 4, 2001.
Drimmer was eager to hear from Demjanjuk’s lawyer: “Oklahoma City Bombing,” Famous Cases and Criminals, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Good morning, Your Honor,” Stutman said, rising: Trial transcript, United States v. John Demjanjuk, United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division 1:99CV1193.
But now Stutman’s face was ashen: Jonathan Drimmer, conversation recounted in interview with author, 2018.
Chapter Twenty-Three
…billboard that John Lennon and Yoko Ono put up in cities around the world in December 1969 as the Vietnam War raged: Jon Wiener, “‘War Is Over! If You Want It’: John and Yoko, 40 Years Later,” The Nation, December 27, 2009.
Eight months after the hearing in Cleveland: David Johnston, “Demjanjuk Loses Citizenship Again; Judge Cites Lies,” New York Times, February 22, 2002.
Federal judge Paul Matia had called the government’s evidence “devastating”: United States v. John Demjanjuk.
Trawniki became the training ground, command center, and supply depot: Expert report of Charlie Sydnor, September 2000, United States v. John Demjanjuk.
There was silence on the line after Rosenbaum delivered the news: Eli Rosenbaum, conversation recounted in interview with author, 2018.
“Our efforts,” Rosenbaum said at the press conference, “were inspired by the courage of the survivors”: Audio of prepared remarks, US Department of Justice press conference, 2002, courtesy of Eli Rosenbaum.
Federal judge Lawrence McKenna had ruled for the government, stripping Reimer of his citizenship: Ruling, United States v. Jack Reimer.
In New York, US Attorney James Comey, who would go on to become the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told the New York Times: Benjamin Weiser, “Judge Revokes Citizenship of Man Linked to Nazi War Crimes,” New York Times, September 6, 2002.
…Trawniki man Vladas Zajanckauskas, who had penned a journal: Linda Matchan, “Two Faces of a WWII Case,” Boston Globe, September 29, 2007.
“To me, among those who’ve survived”: Benjamin Weiser, “Judge Revokes Citizenship of Man Linked to Nazi War Crimes,” New York Times, September 6, 2002.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“To manage the murder of two million Jews”: Peter Black, prepared remarks, “Trawniki Men and Operation Reinhard,” Conference, Trawniki, Poland, October 24, 2013.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who would later accept a seat on the US Supreme Court, had penned the ruling: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, United States v. Reimer.
…he later took his case to Germany and, in a speech to scholars and prosecutors, pleaded for help: Eli Rosenbaum, speech delivered at conference, 50th anniversary of the Central Office of the State Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of National-Socialist Crimes, Ludwigsburg, Germany, December 2, 2008.
“Like the cherry blossoms on the Tidal Basin in Washington”: Ned Stutman, Facing Up: Grateful Ned’s Guide for Living and Dying with Grace, Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2009.
Epilogue
No other country has more rigorously pursued Nazi war criminals: Efraim Zuroff, “Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals,” Simon Wiesenthal Center, Israel office, December 2016.
“To be successful at preventing future genocides”: Guterman, “The History Professional: An Interview with Elizabeth B. White.”
Though OSI won cases against dozens of Nazi war criminals, eight defendants under deportation orders died on US soil: Debbie Cenziper and Scott Nover, “Former Guard at Nazi Camp Is the Last Remaining War Collaborator Ordered Out of the United States; Authorities Want Him Gone Before He Dies,” Washington Post, December 16, 2007.
In August 2018, US authorities, working under a deal cut by the White House, removed former Trawniki man Jakiw Palij from the United States: Debbie Cenziper and Justine Coleman, “‘Get the Nazi Out of New York’: The Secret Operation to Deport the Last Living Nazi Defendant in the
U.S. Was a Rare Success,” Washington Post, September 1, 2018.
Photos
In 1941, the city of Lublin became the headquarters of Operation Reinhard, the secret Nazi plan to exploit Polish Jews as forced laborers, secure their homes, factories, land, and possessions, and ultimately deport them to three killing centers fitted with gas chambers. The Jews in the Lublin ghetto were among the first to die. Of more than forty thousand Lublin Jews, fewer than two hundred survived the Holocaust. Here, Jewish boys pose in the ghetto. Credit: AP Images
The city of Lublin was a vibrant hub for Jewish life in prewar Poland until the Germans ordered tens of thousands of Jews into a freezing, crowded ghetto rife with disease, hunger, and a sign outside forbidding entry to members of the German military. In spring 1942, most of the ghetto’s inhabitants were rounded up and sent to the gas chambers at the Belzec killing center. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Before the war, Lucyna Stryjewska and her brother, David, lived in an affluent Lublin neighborhood of stately apartment homes. Their father was a court interpreter, their mother a dentist. The family survived together for months until Lucyna’s mother was deported to the Majdanek concentration camp and her father was shot in the Lublin ghetto. Lucyna escaped to Warsaw with David and her boyfriend, Feliks Wojcik, whom she married in the Warsaw ghetto. But her brother was caught and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. Lucyna never saw him again. Courtesy of the Wojcik family
To carry out Operation Reinhard, the SS needed manpower. In 1941, Odilo Globocnik, the SS leader of the Lublin District, set up a training camp for auxiliary police in the nearby village of Trawniki and began to recruit hundreds of captured Soviet soldiers. These so-called Trawniki men would do the dirtiest jobs under Operation Reinhard: liquidating Jewish ghettos and guarding the killing centers, concentration camps, and Jewish forced-labor camps in occupied Poland. The operation was of great personal interest to SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who visited the camp in 1942. Credit: Staatsanwalt beim Landgericht Hamburg
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