Efraim Zuroff writes in the Forward ("Hunting Demjanjuk: The End of a Decades-Long Case and What It Means") about the significance of the Demjanjuk verdict in Germany.He speculates about the impact as follows:
Demjanjuk’s conviction marks the first time that a German court has found a suspected Holocaust perpetrator guilty without any evidence of a specific crime committed by the defendant, other than service in a death camp. As a Holocaust historian, I can easily justify such a decision. Imagine, though, what a profound impact such an exhibition of judicial will could have had on previous trials of Nazi war criminals and other cases that were never prosecuted if this standard of proof had been applied.
So now the question is: Will this verdict serve as a precedent that can pave the way for additional prosecutions?
There's no one left to prosecute. Perhaps that explains the change in attitude of the German courts.
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