Who Is John Demjanjuk? Age, Biography and Wiki
John Demjanjuk was born on April 3, 1920, in Ukraine and passed away on March 17, 2012. As of 2025, if he were still alive, he would be 105 years old. Demjanjuk was globally recognized for his controversial trial and allegations related to his service as a guard at Nazi death camps during World War II. His legal battles spanned several decades and brought attention to issues of justice, memory, and the Holocaust.
| Occupation | Other |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | April 3, 1920 |
| Age | 91 Years |
| Birth Place | Dubovi Makharyntsi, Kiev Governorate, Soviet Ukraine |
| Horoscope | Aries |
| Country | Germany |
| Date of death | 17 March, 2012 |
| Died Place | Bad Feilnbach, Germany |
Popularity
John Demjanjuk's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
Although specific details about John Demjanjuk's height and weight are not extensively documented, historical records suggest he had an average physique for a man of his era. He is often depicted in photographs as being of moderate build.
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
John Demjanjuk was married to his wife, Vera Demjanjuk, for many years until his passing. Together, they had three children, contributing to a family legacy that faced the implications of his past. Due to the nature of his legal issues, discussions about his family dynamics often intersect with public interest in his life story.
Demjanjuk found a job as a driver in a displaced persons camp in the Bavarian city of Landshut, and was subsequently transferred to camps in other southern German cities, until ending up in Feldafing near Munich in May 1951. There he met Vera Kowlowa, another DP, and they married.
Demjanjuk, his wife and daughter arrived in New York City aboard the USS General W. G. Haan (AP-158) on 9 February 1952. They moved to Indiana, and later settled in the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills, Ohio.
There he became a United Auto Workers (UAW) diesel engine mechanic at the nearby Ford automobile factory, where a friend from Regensburg had found work. His wife found work at a General Electric facility, and the two had two more children.
On 14 November 1958, Demjanjuk became a naturalized citizen of the United States and legally changed his name from Ivan to John.
Net Worth and Salary
Throughout his life, John Demjanjuk's net worth became a topic of discussion, especially during his trials, which were heavily publicized and involved significant legal expenses. Estimates of Demjanjuk's net worth at the time of his passing were modest, primarily owing to the financial burdens imposed by his prolonged legal battles.
Career, Business and Investments
Demjanjuk's career was significantly marred by allegations of complicity in war crimes. Prior to the Holocaust accusations, he was known to have worked in various manual labor jobs, most notably in the automotive industry after relocating to the United States. His trial and subsequent appeals became the central focus of his life post-1970, overshadowing any other career pursuits.
On 20 February 1998, Judge Paul Matia of the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio vacated Demjanjuk's denaturalization "without prejudice," meaning that OSI could seek to strip Demjanjuk of citizenship a second time. OSI continued to investigate Demjanjuk, relying solely on documentary evidence rather than eye-witnesses.
These documents were found in former Soviet archives in Moscow and in Lithuania, which placed Demjanjuk at Sobibor on 26 March 1943, at Flossenbürg on 1 October 1943, and at Majdanek from November 1942 through early March 1943; administrative documents from Flossenbürg referencing Demjanjuk's name and Trawniki card number were also uncovered.
On 19 May 1999, the Justice Department filed a complaint against Demjanjuk to seek his denaturalization. The complaint alleged that Demjanjuk served as a guard at the Sobibór and Majdanek camps in Poland under German occupation and as a member of an SS death's head battalion at Flossenbürg.
The complaint relied on evidence compiled by historians Charles W. Sydnor Jr. and Todd Huebner, who compared Demjanjuk's Trawniki card to 40 other known cards and found that issues on the card that had fueled suspicions of fraud were in fact typical of Trawniki's poor record keeping.
Social Network
John Demjanjuk had a limited social presence, as his notoriety primarily stemmed from legal issues rather than a lifestyle that engaged with social networks. There are not many known public profiles or pages associated with him that would typically highlight a celebrity's social media interactions.
Demjanjuk later claimed to have been drafted into the Russian Liberation Army in 1944; however, an investigation conducted in the 1990s by the US Office of Special Investigations (OSI) found this to be a cover story. OSI was unable to establish Demjanjuk's whereabouts from December 1944 to the end of the war.
After the end of the war, Demjanjuk spent time in several displaced persons (DP) camps in Germany. Initially, Demjanjuk hoped to emigrate to Argentina or Canada; however, under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, he applied to move to the United States.
His application stated that he had worked as a driver in the town of Sobibór in eastern Poland; the nearby Sobibor extermination camp was named after the village. Demjanjuk later claimed this was a coincidence, and said that he picked the name Sobibor from an atlas owned by a fellow applicant because it had a large Soviet population.
Historian Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg observed in regard to Demjanjuk that Nazi war criminals sometimes tried to evade prosecution after the war by presenting themselves as victims of Nazi persecution rather than as the perpetrators.
Education
John Demjanjuk's formal education is not extensively documented, reflecting the tumultuous era of his childhood in Ukraine before and during World War II, which limited educational opportunities for many. After relocating to the United States, he was known to have worked various jobs that did not inherently require higher education credentials.
The proceeding opened with the prosecution calling historian Earl F. Ziemke, who reconstructed the situation on the Eastern Front in 1942 and showed that it would have been possible for Demjanjuk to have been captured at the Battle of Kerch and arrive in Trawniki that same year.
The authenticity of the Trawniki card was affirmed by US government experts who examined the original document as well as by Wolfgang Scheffler of the Free University of Berlin during the hearing, Scheffler also testified to the crimes committed by Trawniki men and that it was possible that Demjanjuk had been moved between Sobibor and Treblinka.
Additionally, the former paymaster at Trawniki, Heinrich Schaefer, stated in a deposition that such cards were standard issue at Trawniki. Five Holocaust survivors from Treblinka identified Demjanjuk as having been at Treblinka and having been "Ivan the Terrible".
Additionally, OSI submitted the testimony of former SS guard Horn identifying Demjanjuk as having been at Treblinka.
