‘Auschwitz medic’ to stand trial

A GERMAN court has ruled that a 95-year-old former SS sergeant who was alleged to have served as a medic in Auschwitz is fit to stand trial.

The suspect, known only as Hubert Z to comply with Germany’s privacy laws, is accused of being an accessory to the murder of at least 3,681 people.

According to prosecutors, he acted as one of the death camp’s paramedics from August 15 to September 14 1944.

During that month, at least 14 deportation trains arrived at the extermination camp from as far away as Lyon, Vienna and Westerbork, in the Netherlands.

The accessory to murder charges were originally laid by prosecutors in Schwerin last year.

A lower court in Neubrandenburg ruled in June he was unfit for trial, but lawyers appealed.

In September, the attorney for a 93-year-old former SS sergeant charged with 170,000 counts of accessory to murder over allegations he served as an Auschwitz death camp guard, said his client was not fit for trial.

Germany’s Detmold state court however, determined earlier this month that Reinhold H, whose surname was also withheld, was fit for trial.