Demjanjuk, at Trial, Blows Kisses to Kin

John Demjanjuk leaped from his chair today, grinning, waving and blowing kisses at his two daughters and 15-month-old grandson who arrived from the United States to attend his war crimes trial.

Lydia Maday, 37, of Cleveland and Irene Nishnic, 27, and her 15-month-old son Edward of Philadelphia arrived in Israel Monday night to see Demjanjuk for the first time since last summer.

Shortly after Demjanjuk was escorted to his seat in the defendant’s box, his son John Jr., who has been at the trial since the beginning, pointed out his sisters in the press balcony of the movie-theater-turned-courtroom.

The bald, bull-necked Demjanjuk sprang to his feet, waving his arms, blowing kisses and flashing a broad smile. The daughters waved back as little Edward gurgled and hugged his teddy bear.

‘Never Hurt Anyone’

Demjanjuk’s daughters said they are certain their father--a Ukrainian who moved to the United States after World War II and became an auto worker in Cleveland--is innocent.

“My father has never hurt anyone,” Nishnic said, holding her squirming baby. “He never beat us. He never beat my mother. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t even smoke. He’s not that kind of a person.”

Demjanjuk, 66, is accused of being the Nazi guard “Ivan the Terrible,” who operated the gas chambers at the Treblinka death camp, where 850,000 Jews were slaughtered in 1942 and 1943. He faces death by hanging if convicted.