Jewish plaintiffs could barely conceal their anger yesterday after the trial of the suspected war criminal John Demjanjuk was delayed for almost three weeks because he was suffering from a slight fever.
“At 8am, the accused registered a temperature of 37.5C,” Judge Ralph Alt told the Munich courtroom. “This was despite taking fever-lowering medication an hour earlier, when his temperature read 38C.” Normal body temperature is regarded as 37C (about 98F).
Mr Demjanjuk’s doctor said that the 89-year-old retired car worker from Ohio had a “general infection” and he had advised the judge that the accused should not be transferred from his cell in Stadelheim prison, Munich, to the courtroom.
The verdict of the three dozen Jewish relatives and co-plaintiffs in the court was that the German judge was being overprotective.
“We have all flown across Europe, only to be silenced by half a degree of temperature fluctuation,” said Paul Hellman, 74, a Dutch Jewish journalist who lost his parents in the Sobibor death camp.
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Mr Demjanjuk is accused of helping to murder 27,900 Jews — most of them deported from the Netherlands — by hounding them to the camp’s gas chambers. The defence is arguing that Mr Demjanjuk, as a Soviet prisoner of war pressed into service by the SS, is as much a victim as some of the persecuted Jews.
The hearings have been adjourned until December 21.
The dominant presence in court of Mr Demjanjuk’s sickbed, pushed to the centre of the room, has added a macabre touch to the trial.
“It’s becoming like a black comedy, like an Ionesco play,” said one disgruntled co-plaintiff yesterday. “This man is ruling the trial from his sickbed — and all without uttering a word.”
The German court is nervous that Mr Demjanjuk — who suffers from back pain, bone marrow problems and gout — could die during the trial, which is expected to end in May. So far it has resisted the temptation to switch the venue to the accused’s prison.