100-year-old ex-guard of Sachsenhausen concentration camp on trial in Germany | News from Germany about Germany

In eastern Germany on Thursday, October 7, another trial began in the case related to the crimes of the Nazis during the Second World War. The former guard of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Josef S., was brought before the Neuruppin Regional Court. The prosecutor’s office accuses him of at least 3,518 cases of “deliberate and voluntary” complicity in the murders committed between January 1942 and February 1945. Until the end of the process – presumably January 2022, it is planned to hold more than 20 meetings. The defendant can be present at each of them no longer than 2-2.5 hours due to his advanced age – he will soon be 100 years old.

The trial in the case of Joseph S. attracted the interest of not only the German, but also foreign media, so the first session of the regional court in Neuruppin had to be held – in conditions of increased security measures – in one of the sports halls in Brandenburg an der Havel.

The process involves the surviving prisoners of the camp

The hearing will be attended by the surviving prisoners of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, as well as the descendants of former prisoners, including those from Irail, Peru, Poland, the Netherlands, and France.

Sachsenhausen, located in Oranienburg north of Berlin, was opened in 1936 and since 1938, among other things, served as the administrative center of all Nazi concentration camps. In the years before the liberation of the concentration camp by the Red Army in April 1945, more than 200 thousand people passed through it. Tens of thousands of prisoners were killed, including as a result of “medical experiments” carried out on them.

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How the main Nazi criminals were tried
What was tried in Nuremberg
The trial of the main Nazi criminals began in Nuremberg on November 20, 1945. The defendants were charged on four counts: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, unleashing a war of aggression, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The trial lasted almost a year. The testimonies of 280 witnesses were heard. Protocols and proofs amounted to 40 volumes.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
In the dock
In Nuremberg, 24 people were tried, representing the elite of the “Third Reich”. The deceased or escaped Martin Bormann, Hitler’s secretary, was tried in absentia. And in the dock were, among others, the second person in Nazi Germany, Hermann Goering (left), deputy “Fuhrer” for the NSDAP Rudolf Hess (center), Foreign Minister of the “Third Reich” Joachim von Ribbentrop (right).

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
Party convention city
Nuremberg was not chosen by chance for the trial of Nazi criminals. This city hosted party congresses of the NSDAP during the “Third Reich”. Here Hitler put on grandiose propaganda shows, in which thousands of people took part. The symbolic significance of Nuremberg allowed the Western allies to persuade the Soviet side to arrange a trial on American-controlled territory.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
Guarded Palace of Justice
Nuremberg lay in ruins, but the Palace of Justice miraculously survived. Part of the roof was damaged, glass was shattered, but all this was quickly repaired. The huge building could accommodate all the staff of the International Tribunal – about a thousand people. It was also important that the Palace of Justice was connected to the prison where the accused were kept by an underground passage. The building was heavily guarded.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
Soviet judges of the tribunal
The International Tribunal consisted of eight judges – two each from the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France. The USSR was represented at the tribunal by Major General of Justice Iona Nikitchenko (center), who participated in several trials over “enemies of the people” in the second half of the 1930s, and his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Volchkov. They were the only ones who were in military uniform.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
Chief American Prosecutor
The main US prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials of the main Nazi criminals was Robert Jackson – Attorney General, later – a member of the United States Supreme Court. After Nuremberg, he became famous for playing a leading role in a lawsuit in 1954 that resulted in the abolition of racial segregation in schools in the United States.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
People and organizations
In Nuremberg, not only national socialist leaders such as Goering were tried, but also the criminal organizations of the Third Reich: the SS, SA, SD and Gestapo, the leadership of the NSDAP, the Imperial Cabinet of Ministers, the General Staff and the High Command of the Wehrmacht. The SA, the Cabinet of Ministers, the General Staff and the Wehrmacht Command were not recognized as criminal organizations for formal legal reasons.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
Death sentences
12 defendants were sentenced in Nuremberg to death by hanging (Bormann – in absentia). Hermann Goering committed suicide an hour and a half before the execution, which was led by US Army Sergeant John Woods (pictured) with two assistants. Ribbentrop was hanged first.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
Subsequent Nuremberg Trials
The trial of the main Nazi criminals was the first of 13 Nuremberg trials. Later, there were trials of Nazi judges, concentration camp doctors, Einsatzgruppen, industrialists of the Third Reich (pictured; Alfred Krupp on the left) and others. In total, 185 accused were tried on them, of whom 24 were sentenced to death, another 20 to life imprisonment.

How the main Nazi criminals were tried
Memorial museum
This is what Hall 600 at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg looks like today, where the trial of the main Nazi criminals took place. Now in the Palace of Justice there is a memorial museum of the history of the Nuremberg Trials, of which this meeting room is a part.
Author: Efim Shuman