SPIEGEL: A little over a week ago the German Federal Court decided that the Munich judiciary has jurisdiction in the investigation of the alleged former concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk, who is accused of participating in the killing of at least 29,000 people. He can now be charged and put on trial in Germany. Why is he still at home in Ohio and not in Germany?

Rosenbaum: The question would really have to be directed to the German government. We are certainly ready to remove him.

SPIEGEL: How long would it take to transfer him to Germany?

Rosenbaum: The German government would have to contact Homeland Security and issue travel papers for Demjanjuk. He has no passport because the US has revoked his citizenship. Since then he is stateless. A German consulate could issue the papers and within 24 to 48 hours immigration and custom enforcement could put him on a plane.

SPIEGEL: That quickly?

Rosenbaum: Legally, the case of Demjanjuk is not an extradition, for that you would need a warrant and more time. This is to implement an already issued deportation order. The court battles are over. The order of removal is there to be carried out as soon as a country is willing to receive him.

SPIEGEL: In 1988 Demjanjuk was already sentenced to death by an Israeli court, in 1993 the Supreme Court had to acquit him because of "reasonable doubt". Is there new evidence that Demjanjuk was indeed at the concentration camp Sobibor in Poland?

Rosenbaum: I understand that the Ludwigsburg Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes has unearthed additional proof. I am not at liberty to discuss what it is.

SPIEGEL: At a trial Demjanjuk's service ID card would be very important evidence. At the end of the 80's experts of the German Federal Criminal Police Office considered the document a fake.

Rosenbaum: This is, of course, nonsense. If someone reached that conclusion, he is wrong. This is perhaps the most heavily tested document in the history of law enforcement. It is clearly authentic. In fact, even Demjanjuk's lawyer abandoned the claim that the card was a forgery by the KGB. The new defense is that there was an Ivan Demjanjuk in Sobibor but it was a cousin.

SPIEGEL: Are you surprised that it took the investigators in Ludwigsburg and other German authorities so long to go after Demjanjuk?

Rosenbaum: No. I have very high regards for our colleagues in Ludwigsburg. We have a very strong collaborative relationship with them. They know that we are available to assist them on a twenty-four-hour-day, seven-days-a-week basis.

SPIEGEL: In the United States, US authorities cannot indict Demjanjuk for his alleged crimes because there is no law for it. But why did it take six years for the deportation order to be possible?

Rosenbaum: Because it's not criminal prosecution here, it's civil litigation and that always moves more slowly. There are many courts, seven levels of jurisdiction.

SPIEGEL: For years Demjanjuk's family has claimed that he is too sick and too weak to stand trial.

Rosenbaum: I think he is well enough to stand trial. His last court appearance wasn't so long ago and he was able to participate in the proceedings.

spiegel.de