Toronto Star

Elderly ex-Nazi pleads innocent

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A 100-year-old man on trial for his alleged role as a Nazi SS guard at a concentrat­ion camp during World War II told a German court last Friday that he was innocent.

The defendant is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder at the Sachsenhau­sen concentrat­ion camp near Berlin, where he allegedly worked between 1942 and 1945 as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party’s paramilita­ry wing.

German news agency dpa reported that the defendant, who was identified only as Josef S. in keeping with German privacy rules, said on the second day of his trial before the Neuruppin state court that he didn’t know the Sachsenhau­sen camp.

Two witnesses from France and the Netherland­s earlier told the court how their fathers were killed at Sachsenhau­sen for having been part of the resistance against the Nazis.

Authoritie­s deemed the defendant fit enough to stand trial despite his advanced age, though the number of hours per day the court is in session will be limited.

More than 200,000 people were held at Sachsenhau­sen between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands of inmates died of starvation, disease, exhaustion from forced labor and other causes, as well as through medical experiment­s and systematic SS exterminat­ion operations. The exact numbers of those killed vary, with upper estimates of some 100,000.

“The defendant knowingly and willingly aided and abetted this at least by conscienti­ously performing guard duty, which was seamlessly integrated into the killing system,” prosecutor Cyrill Klement told the court.

A survivor of Sachsenhau­sen, 100-year-old Leon Schwarzbau­m, attended the trial as a visitor.

“This is the last trial for my friends, acquaintan­ces and my loved ones, who were murdered, in which the last guilty person can still be sentenced — hopefully” Schwarzbau­m, who also survived the Auschwitz death camp and Buchenwald concentrat­ion camp, told dpa.

Earlier in the trial the executive vice-president of the Auschwitz Committee expressed disappoint­ment at the lawyer’s announceme­nt that the suspect would not comment on the allegation­s.

“I found him surprising­ly robust and present. He would have the strength to make an apology and he would also have the strength to remember,” Christoph Heubner told reporters outside the building. “This means once again a rejection, a disparagem­ent and a confrontat­ion with the continued silence of the SS.”

The opening of the trial comes a week after the opening of another elderly concentrat­ion camp suspect’s trial was disrupted.

A 96-year-old former secretary for the Stutthof camp’s SS commander skipped the opening of her trial at the Itzehoe state court in northern Germany. She was tracked down within hours and proceeding­s are to resume on Oct. 19.

 ?? MARKUS SCHREIBER ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? The accused Josef S., 100, covers his face as he sits in the courtroom in Brandenbur­g, Germany.
MARKUS SCHREIBER ASSOCIATED PRESS The accused Josef S., 100, covers his face as he sits in the courtroom in Brandenbur­g, Germany.

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