Key takeaways:
- The 98-year-old man is charged with being an accessory to murder as a guard at the Nazis’ Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1943 and 1945.
- The man is charged with more than 3,300 counts of being an accessory to murder between July 1943 and February 1945.
- The case is a reminder of the atrocities committed during the Nazi era and the importance of holding those responsible accountable for their actions.
On Friday, German prosecutors announced that a 98-year-old man has been charged with being an accessory to murder as a guard at the Nazis’ Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1943 and 1945. The man, a resident of Main-Kinzig county near Frankfurt, is accused of having “supported the cruel and malicious killing of thousands of prisoners as a member of the SS guard detail,” according to prosecutors in Giessen.
The man is charged with more than 3,300 counts of being an accessory to murder between July 1943 and February 1945. The indictment was filed at the state court in Hanau, which will now have to decide whether to send the case to trial. If it does, he will be tried under juvenile law, taking account of his age at the time of the alleged crimes.
The trial, if it goes ahead, would be the latest in a series of prosecutions of former Nazi guards and officials in Germany. In 2011, a former guard at Auschwitz, John Demjanjuk, was convicted of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison.
The case is a reminder of the atrocities committed during the Nazi era and the importance of holding those responsible accountable for their actions. It also highlights the need for Germany to continue to investigate and prosecute those who committed such heinous crimes, regardless of their age.
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