From the BBC:
“German court sets trial for
100-year-old alleged Nazi guard”
A 100-year-old alleged former
guard at a Nazi concentration camp will stand trial in Germany accused of
complicity in 3,518 murders, prosecutors say. The unnamed suspect is accused of
assisting in the murder of prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin
between 1942 and 1945. His alleged crimes include complicity in executions by
firing squad and poisonous gas.
On Monday prosecutors confirmed
the man would be fit to stand trial in October. Prosecutors said the man underwent
a medical assessment which, despite his advanced age, deemed him fit to appear
in court for two-and-a-half hours per day. Confirmation of the man's fitness to
stand trial was first reported by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag on Sunday. The
newspaper quoted one lawyer, Thomas Walther, as saying many of the complainants
were "just as old as the accused and expect justice to be done". German
media say the trial is expected to be one of the last concerning crimes
committed during the Nazi era. The survivors and perpetrators are now very old.
About 200,000 people were
imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1936 and 1945. Political
opponents, prisoners of war and persecuted groups were among those detained
there by the SS, Nazi Germany's foremost security agency. The Sachsenhausen
museum says tens of thousands of prisoners died at the camp as a result of
hunger, disease, forced labour, extermination operations and other causes. Germany
has been pursuing former Nazi camp workers since a landmark ruling in 2011 that
convicted a former guard, John Demjanjuk, as an accessory to mass murder. He
died pending an appeal, but the verdict set a legal precedent. Previously,
courts had required evidence of direct involvement in atrocities. Although the
number of suspects in Nazi crimes is dwindling, prosecutors are still trying to
bring individuals to justice. In July 2020, a 93-year-old former concentration
camp guard was found guilty of complicity in the murder of more than 5,000
prisoners. But in March this year, prosecutors said a 96-year-old alleged
former camp guard was unfit to stand trial.
^ The Germans may bring this man
to trial (as they should) yet they continue to protect him and his name the
same way they have protected him and all the other Nazis since 1945. The only good thing about all of this is that the other Nazis around the world (who are in their 80s, 90s and 100s) can no longer sleep soundly since they could be arrested and tried for their crimes at any time. Hopefully that fear will stay with them until they die and they are then looking up at us. ^
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