Survivor's tale
May 13, 2009
Thomas Blatt was one of the few to survive the Sobibor extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. The 82-year-old is now a key witness in the Munich trial of John Demjanjuk, who is alleged to have been a guard at Sobibor.
Deutsche Welle: Why did you decide to come to Germany for this trial?
Thomas Blatt: Because when I escaped from Sobibor, I promised myself that if I survived, I will do everything to tell the story of Sobibor. And that's what I'm doing. And I know that Demjanjuk knows a lot, because Demjanjuk was in the middle of the Holocaust. And he denies that it is him, that he was not a guard at Sobibor, but he was. I don't care if Demjanjuk is in jail or not. I do care that he should tell the truth. And the truth is, that he was a guard at Sobibor.
Sobibor was not a simple concentration camp. Sobibor was an extermination camp. At Sobibor the guards were simple murderers. In a concentration camp a guard was a guard, … responsible [for preventing] people from running away. But at Sobibor they were simple murderers.
You said that among the guards at Sobibor some were sadistic.
I said that they were sadistic and that some guards escaped from Sobibor. But Demjanjuk did not escape. He was there all the time with the Nazis. I don't say that I [saw] him for sure.
[The guards] were very sadistic. And we were more afraid of the guards than we were of the Germans.
I'm sure I know that he was a guard. It is my duty to tell. He should tell what Sobibor was for.
What will be your reaction if there is not enough evidence to find Mr. Demjanjuk guilty?
I believe that he will tell the truth, the way it was in Sobibor. And this will be part of history. This will be [something] for the new generation to learn. Because what he has seen, few people have seen. I strongly believe he will tell the truth. And later Demjanjuk could go free. For me his testimony is very important, and that's why I am in Munich following Demjanjuk's story.
I am sorry in a way for Demjanjuk. He's an old man, 89 years old. He's sick, he has a family. So I'm sorry in a way. And I think that many people think the same way: he's an old man, he's suffered so much. But I also see the other side of Demjanjuk. I see him as a terrible sadist, a murderer. He didn't run away from his work.
Interview: Michael Lawton
Editor: Nancy Isenson