A 100-year-old former alleged Nazi Guard will stand trial in Germany for complicity in 3,518 murders, according to prosecutors.
The suspect is accused of being an accessory to murder at the Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin between 1942 and 1945.
German media outlets say the trial is expected to be one of the last for crimes committed during the Nazi era.
His name is yet to be disclosed. His most notable crimes he will stand trial for are participating in the “execution by firing squad of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942” and the murder of prisoners “using the poisonous gas Zyklon B.”
On Monday, prosecutors confirmed he is fit enough to stand trial in October.
To determine the man’s fitness to stand trial he underwent a medical assessment he passed despite his old age. It deemed him fit enough to appear in court for two-and-a-half hours per day.
A 100-year-old alleged former guard at a Nazi concentration camp will stand trial in Germany accused of complicity in 3,518 murders. The unnamed suspect is accused of assisting in the murder of prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin between 1942 and 1945. #ArrestDeKlerk
— African (@ali_naka) August 2, 2021
Thomas Walther, a lawyer in the case, said to German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag that: “Several of the co-complainants are just as old as the accused and expect justice to be done.”
Germany has pursued former Nazi camp workers since a landmark ruling in 2011 that convicted a former guard, John Demjanjuk, as an accessory to mass murder.
It set a precedent that courts now do not require evidence of direct involvement in atrocities.
Prosecutors are still determined 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.
On the other hand, in March this year, prosecutors found that a 96-year-old alleged former camp guard was unfit to stand trial.
