Everyone at Nazi camp guilty of murder, says survivor

A survivor of Sobibor Nazi death camp was today due to give evidence against John Demjanjuk who is accused of taking part in the murder of 27,900 Jews.

Thomas Blatt, 82, whose family was killed in the camp in Poland, survived because he became a shoe-shine boy to an SS guard.

He says he does not remember Demjanjuk, now 89, but was due to argue that anyone who worked at Sobibor — no matter in how lowly a position — was complicit in the murders.

Before giving evidence in Munich, Mr Blatt said: "No one who worked at Sobibor was not involved in death. It was the sole reason for the camp's existence. He cannot say, I baked bread, I walked along the wire, I locked doors at night'. Everyone was a killer." Demjanjuk, a retired US car worker, was deported from Ohio in May last year.

Prosecutors say that as a camp guard he pushed thousands of men, women and children to their death in the gas chambers. More than 250,000 prisoners were killed at the camp.

Demjanjuk was captured by the Nazis while fighting in the Soviet army. He denies being at Sobibor. Since Demjanjuk's trial began in November most of the testimony has come from relatives of victims.

Mr Blatt told reporters before the hearing he is not vengeful but wants justice done. "The trial is what matters to me," he said. "I want the truth. The world should find out how it was at Sobibor. He should confess, because he knows so much."