Convicted Nazi Death Camp Guard John Demjanjuk Dead at 91

Former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, convicted in Germany last year of helping kill some 28,000 prisoners, died Saturday at the age of 91.

Police in the southern German state of Bavaria say the ailing Demjanjuk died in a nursing home in the town of Bad Feilnbach. He had been sentenced last May to five years in prison, but was freed pending an appeal.

The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk denied any role in the Holocaust and claimed that he was a victim of the Nazis himself. He told the court he was drafted into the Soviet army in 1941, held as a German prisoner of war and recruited as a prison camp guard.

After World War II Demjanjuk became a U.S. citizen and spent decades working as a mechanic before he was extradited to face trial in Germany in 2009. His conviction set a legal precedent in Germany, marking the first time someone was convicted solely on the grounds of serving as a camp guard, with no evidence of being involved in a specific crime.

In 1988, Demjanjuk was convicted in Israel of being the notorious guard known as “Ivan the Terrible.” Israel's Supreme Court later overturned the conviction as a case of mistaken identity.

Former 'Most Wanted' Nazi-Era Suspect Dead

A former Hungarian war crimes suspect once wanted in connection with the massacre of as many as 2,000 Serbs and Jews is dead.

News agencies say Sandor Kepiro died Saturday in Budapest. He was 97.

Kepiro once topped the most wanted list at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to tracking down Holocaust-era war criminals.

The center and Hungarian prosecutors said Kepiro was a member of Hungary's pro-Nazi police during World War Two. They accused him of taking part in the January 1942 massacre and helping to dump the bodies into the icy Danube River.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's top Nazi hunter found Kepiro living in Budapest in 2006 and alerted Hungarian authorities. But a Hungarian court freed Kepiro in July of this year, citing a lack of evidence.

The ruling sparked demonstrations in Budapest and Novi Sad, where the massacre took place.

Legendary Greek Resistance Fighter Apostolos Santas, Who Defied Nazis, Dies at 89

Photo: The German War Flag is raised on the Acropolis of Athens, April 1941. (Photo by Scheerer, from Deutsches Bundesarchiv / German Federal Archive)   

Monday, 2 May 2011

Legendary Greek resistance fighter Apostolos Santas, who secretly scrambled to the top of the Acropolis in 1941 to tear down a Nazi flag, has died.

Greek officials say he died Saturday in Athens at 89. No cause of death was announced.

On May 31, 1941, the teenage Santas and another young resistance fighter, Manolis Glezos, secretly climbed to the top of the Acropolis and tore down the swastika. It was the first symbolic act of resistance against the Nazi occupation of Greece.

Santas joined the Greek underground and fought against both the Germans and Italian fascists.

Santas later joined a left-wing resistance group and was forced into exile during the civil war that broke out in Greece following the end of World War Two. He returned to Greece in 1963.

In 2008, the Greek parliament formally honored Santas and Glezos for their bravery in seizing the Nazi flag.