Adolescent court charges elderly German ex-guard for World War II killings
The Nazis imprisoned 200,000 people at Sachsenhausen, where tens of thousands died through starvation, medical experiments and outright murder.
Prisoners in the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, in December 1938. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Now the German government has started prosecution against a man alleged to have worked at the concentration camp as a guard from July 1943 and February 1945 while a youth. He is charged with assisting in the mass killing of 3,300 inmates. However, since the crimes were allegedly committed before becoming an adult, the case will be tried in a juvenile court.
The 98-year-old lives in Main-Kinzig in Central Germany.
Last year, 101-year-old Josef Schuetz received a sentence of five years for his complicity in 3,500 deaths at Sachsenhausen. Schuetz died this past April.
Prisoners built Sachsenhausen in 1936. It would become a central training facility for the SS and was intended as a model for other concentration camps. During the war, most of the camp’s Jewish inmates were sent east to other camps, including Auschwitz, though a gas chamber was nevertheless installed in 1943.
JNS
