A former Nazi prison guard is set to stand trial in Germany, aged 100, almost 80 years after the end of World War II. He is alleged to have assisted in more than 3,300 murders while working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin, but the 100-year-old was previously ruled unfit to stand trial. But the court has overturned the earlier decision and is urging the trial, saying the defendant is “running out of time.”
German authorities have moved to put a 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard on trial almost 80 years after the end of World War II
The Frankfurt regional court said on Tuesday it had overturned a lower court’s decision that the suspect was unfit to stand trial.
The suspect, identified by German media as Gregor Formanek, was charged last year with assisting in 3,322 murders while working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin between July 1943 and February 1945.
But an expert ruled in February that Formanek was unfit to stand trial due to his mental and physical condition, and the Hanau court decided not to prosecute him. The Frankfurt court ruled on Tuesday that the expert’s decision was not based on “sufficient facts.”
The expert himself said there was no opportunity to question the accused and no extensive psychiatric examination was available,
the court said in a statement.
Germany has been trying to bring the last surviving former Nazi war criminals to justice since a landmark 2011 ruling paved the way for more trials. One former Nazi camp guard, John Demjanjuk, was convicted in 2011 of serving as part of Hitler’s killing machine, even though there was no evidence that he had directly killed anyone.
Since then, several former concentration camp workers have been found guilty of complicity in murder on the same grounds. However, with time running out, many cases have been dropped in recent years after the defendants died or were physically unable to stand trial.
More than 200,000 people, including Jews, Gipsy, dissidents and gays, were held at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands died there from forced labor, murder, medical experiments, starvation or disease before Soviet troops liberated the camp.
German authorities have moved to put a 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard on trial almost 80 years after the end of World War II
The Frankfurt regional court said on Tuesday it had overturned a lower court’s decision that the suspect was unfit to stand trial.
The suspect, identified by German media as Gregor Formanek, was charged last year with assisting in 3,322 murders while working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin between July 1943 and February 1945.
But an expert ruled in February that Formanek was unfit to stand trial due to his mental and physical condition, and the Hanau court decided not to prosecute him. The Frankfurt court ruled on Tuesday that the expert’s decision was not based on “sufficient facts.”
The expert himself said there was no opportunity to question the accused and no extensive psychiatric examination was available,
the court said in a statement.
Germany has been trying to bring the last surviving former Nazi war criminals to justice since a landmark 2011 ruling paved the way for more trials. One former Nazi camp guard, John Demjanjuk, was convicted in 2011 of serving as part of Hitler’s killing machine, even though there was no evidence that he had directly killed anyone.
Since then, several former concentration camp workers have been found guilty of complicity in murder on the same grounds. However, with time running out, many cases have been dropped in recent years after the defendants died or were physically unable to stand trial.
More than 200,000 people, including Jews, Gipsy, dissidents and gays, were held at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands died there from forced labor, murder, medical experiments, starvation or disease before Soviet troops liberated the camp.
