From BBC News · · 2m
German prosecutors investigate 105-year-old over Nazi camp murders
A centenarian is under investigation for alleged crimes at a Soviet prisoner of war camp in World War Two, decades after the war ended.
In brief
A centenarian is under investigation for alleged crimes at a Soviet prisoner of war camp in World War Two, decades after the war ended. German prosecutors are investigating a one hundred five year old man for allegedly being an accessory to multiple murders at a Nazi PoW camp in World War Two. Originally reported by…
Man aged 105 investigated for camp murders
German prosecutors are investigating a one hundred five year old man over allegations he was an accessory to multiple counts of murder at Stalag 326 VI K in Senne in northwestern Germany during World War Two.
Second guard case ended by death
A similar investigation involving a second former camp guard at Senne has concluded. That suspect died a few months ago at the age of ninety nine, according to Dortmund public prosecutor Sonja Frodermann.
Stalag 326 held hundreds of thousands
Between one hundred eighty thousand and two hundred thousand Soviet prisoners of war were registered at Stalag 326 in Senne. One in three Soviet PoWs entering Nazi Germany between nineteen forty one and nineteen forty five went through the complex, where many died and tens of thousands are buried.
Conditions were horrific and deadly
Living conditions at Stalag 326 were horrific. Prisoners faced appalling mistreatment and malnutrition. More than five point three million Soviet soldiers were held in German captivity during World War Two and half are thought to have died.
No time limit for Nazi murder cases
Germany has had no statute of limitations for murder or accessory to murder since nineteen seventy nine, enabling prosecution of Nazi era crimes. Another centenarian camp guard from Hemer Stalag VI A camp is also under investigation.
Prosecutions face mounting obstacles
Bringing perpetrators to justice more than eighty years after the war is fraught with difficulty. Four years ago a one hundred one year old concentration camp guard was given a five year jail term for complicity in murder at Sachsenhausen. Josef Schütz never served time and died in twenty twenty three while appealing his sentence.
The key point
German prosecutors are investigating a one hundred five year old man for allegedly being an accessory to multiple murders at a Nazi PoW camp in World War Two.
