In September 1986, in a sweltering Jerusalem courtroom, a former Cleveland car factory worker was formally charged with crimes against humanity committed during World War II. But was John Demjanjuk the sadistic gas chamber operator whom inmates of the Treblinka death camp dubbed Ivan the Terrible, a man said to have been responsible for the deaths of more than 870,000 Jews? His defence claimed a case of mistaken identity. Key eyewitness accounts from survivors of Treblinka, together with crucial forensic evidence, claimed otherwise. The author of this account is a lawyer and journalist who was present throughout the 18-month trial.