98-year-old man charged with 3,300 counts of accessory to murder at Nazi concentration camp
A 98-year-old man has been charged with being an accessory to murder after being accused of guarding a Nazi concentration camp.
The unnamed man, who lives in Main-Kinzig, near Frankfurt, is said to have been stationed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1943 and 1945.
The camp was located just north of Berlin, and held hundreds of thousands of prisoners during the Second World War.
Many taken to Sachsenhausen were killed on the spot or died from starvation and disease, while others were experimented on by Nazi troops.
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It's thought that between 40,000 and 50,000 people died at the labor camp.
Prosecutors say the elderly man 'supported the cruel and malicious killing of thousands of prisoners as a member of the SS guard detail'.
According to details that have been released, the pensioner has been charged with over 3,300 counts of being an accessory to murder between July 1943 and February 1945.
The case is being deliberated by a court in Hanau, which will decide whether or not the individual should go to trial for his alleged crimes.
However, despite him now being almost 100 years old, if he were to go to trial, he would be tried as a juvenile. This is due to the court taking into account the age he would have been at the time the crimes were allegedly committed.
Prosecutors have said that a psychiatric exam undertaken on the suspect last year stated that he was fit and well enough to stand trial.
Last year, a 101-year-old man was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of being a Nazi guard at the same concentration camp.
Prosecutors accused him of involvement in the murder of 3,518 prisoners.
According to DW, the man was accused of involvement in the murders committed at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1942 and 1945.
He is the oldest person ever to have faced trial for the horrific crimes the Nazis committed, with prosecutors claiming he 'knowingly and willingly' took part in crimes at the camp which played host to the horrors of the Holocaust.
They presented evidence in the form of documents which showed there was a guard at the camp with the same name, date of birth and birthplace of the man.
Pleading his innocence all throughout the trial, the 101-year-old denied any knowledge of what happened in the concentration camp and insisted he was instead a farm laborer.
Topics: Crime, World War 2
Dominic Smithers