A 100-year-old former SS guard has gone on trial in Germany, accused of complicity in the murder of 3,518 prisoners at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin during World War Two. The defendant, identified as Josef S due to German privacy laws, is the oldest person to face trial for Nazi-era crimes.
Prosecutors allege that Josef S assisted in the shooting of Soviet prisoners of war and the murder of others using Zyklon B gas between 1941 and 1945. He was 21 when he began serving as a guard at Sachsenhausen in 1942. The trial is being held in a specially adapted sports hall at a prison in Brandenburg an der Havel, with sessions limited to two and a half hours per day due to his age.
Josef S, who reportedly worked as a locksmith after the war, arrived at court in a wheelchair and used a walking frame. His lawyer stated that he would not comment on the allegations but would speak about his personal circumstances. The trial is expected to continue until January.
The case is part of a broader effort to bring lower-ranking Nazi perpetrators to justice, following a legal precedent set a decade ago with the conviction of former SS guard John Demjanjuk. Seventeen co-plaintiffs, including survivors of Sachsenhausen, are participating in the trial. One survivor, Leon Schwarzenbaum, aged 100, described it as the 'last trial for my friends and acquaintances and my loved ones who were murdered.'
