Ivan the Terrible (Treblinka guard)

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"Ivan the Terrible" (born c. 1920) is the nickname given to a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust. The moniker alluded to Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, the infamous tsar of Russia. "Ivan the Terrible" gained international recognition following the 1986 case of Ukrainian–American John Demjanjuk. By 1944, a cruel guard named Ivan, sharing his distinct duties and extremely violent behavior with a guard named Nicholas, was mentioned in survivor literature (Rok w Treblince by Jankiel Wiernik, translated into English as A Year in Treblinka in 1945). He disappeared in 1945, and his fate is unknown. Demjanjuk was first accused of being Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka concentration camp. Demjanjuk was found guilty of war crimes and was sentenced to death by hanging. Exculpatory material in the form of conflicting identifications from Soviet archives was subsequently released, identifying Ivan the Terrible as one Ivan Marchenko, leading the Supreme...

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