Israel Limits Visits by Ohio Family to War Crimes Suspect

The family of accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk was turned away from the maximum security Ayalon Prison on Wednesday when they arrived to visit the retired Ohio auto worker.

Demjanjuk’s wife, Vera, wept when she was told she would be allowed only two meetings of two hours each with her 66-year-old husband during her weeklong visit to Israel.

Demjanjuk’s wife, who arrived Tuesday, said she felt “very bad, because he’s not supposed to even be here.” She was accompanied by her daughter, Irene Nishnic, her son-in-law, Edward, and 7-month-old Eddie, her grandson.

Demjanjuk, of Seven Hills, Ohio, was extradited from the United States in February. He is charged with operating the gas chambers at the Treblinka death camp in Poland, where nearly 1 million people, most of them Jews, were killed during World War II.

Prison Authority Commissioner Rafi Suissa said the family will be permitted to visit Demjanjuk today. “We are going out of our way to be reasonable, “Suissa said. “Other prisoners are allowed only one half-hour visit each week, but as they have come such a long way, we will allow longer visits.”

Demjanjuk has insisted he is not the Nazi guard called “Ivan the Terrible,” as former camp inmates have charged.