This evidence, obtained in the last few years from the archives of the former Soviet Union, includes the recollections of former Treblinka guards.

It's a purple premise: The Treblinka death-camp guard Ivan the Terrible has adopted a new identity in California as the chief actuary for a health-insurance company.

Public Relations' Blamed First, Mr. Klieger argued, there is no way to verify what the 21 Treblinka guards told their Soviet interrogators, and under what circumstances.

Moreover, Mr. Demjanjuk's supporters have accused the department of withholding evidence in his favor, including the statements of other Treblinka guards.

Their protests have grown more insistent with the discovery of statements in the archives of the former Soviet Union by Treblinka guards to Soviet interrogators after the war.

As part of that appeal, it has examined Soviet documents detailing the recollections of 21 former Treblinka guards.

Guards' Statements Doubted By contrast, he said, there were many doubts about the recently introduced statement by Treblinka guards identifying Ivan Marchenko as the gas-chamber operator.

The Soviet archives held sworn testimonies by 37 former Treblinka guards and forced laborers who said that the real name of Ivan the Terrible was Ivan Marchenko.

Newly Released Evidence The once-secret files turned over in the last year and half from the former Soviet Union include statements from three dozen Treblinka guards and others.

Since then, however, accounts from the former Soviet Union suggested that Mr. Demjanjuk may have been confused with another Treblinka guard, Ivan Marchenko, who disappeared after the war.