The time for bringing to justice for the crimes of National Socialism is inexorably running out: a few more years, and it will no longer be possible to prosecute anyone – the accused will no longer survive or they will not be able to stand trial due to their advanced age. Currently, German justice is dealing with 17 suspects of Nazi crimes committed during World War II. All suspects are at least 95 years old. One of them, a 100-year-old former guard of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, appeared before the regional court in Neuruppin on October 7, 2021.
The prosecutor’s office accuses him that from 1942 to 1945 he “knowingly and voluntarily” assisted in the murder of concentration camp prisoners: we are talking about 3518 cases of complicity in the murder.
Remains of the crematorium in the current memorial in Sachsenhausen
More specifically, it is argued that, while working in a concentration camp, he contributed, in particular, to the execution of Soviet prisoners of war. According to the investigation, he was complicit in the murder of prisoners using poison gas. At the same time, it is argued that the prisoners of the concentration camp also died “as a result of the creation and maintenance of unbearable conditions” – and in this the accused also played a role.
Investigators found evidence in the Moscow archive
The Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, occupied a special position during National Socialism: after completion in 1936, it served as a model for other concentration camps, later became the administrative center of the entire Nazi concentration camp system, and was also an SS training camp. In total, more than 200 thousand people were imprisoned here.
Tens of thousands have been shot, gassed, died as a result of cruel medical experiments or simply inhuman conditions of detention. Already at the end of April 1945, when the Red Army was approaching Oranienburg, the SS men herded more than 30,000 people on the so-called death marches, during which thousands more prisoners died.
Why did the case only now come to the trial of the guard? Prosecutor Thomas Will explains the situation to Deutsche Welle: “We did not know anything about the accused until we began to study the so-called“ captured documents ”of the Red Army in the State Military Archives in Moscow. investigation and establishment of his identity and time of service in Sachsenhausen, in March 2019, the case was transferred to the prosecutor’s office. “
Prisoners of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, 1938
Will heads the Center for the Investigation of the Crimes of National Socialism in Ludwigsburg (federal state of Baden-Württemberg). Founded in 1958, the institution collects information for preliminary investigations of Nazi criminals and supports investigations at the federal state level.
Murder and complicity have no statute of limitations
But should we be judged for the actions of an 80-year-old 100-year-old man who was a relatively small cog in the huge mechanism of the National Socialist mass murder machine? Thomas Will is sure: yes. “On the one hand, the conference of ministers of justice, held in Stuttgart in June 2015, agreed that the Investigation Center will exist in its current form as long as the task of prosecution will remain, that is, until the criminals can be identified. , the statute of limitations for murder is excluded by law, especially in light of the mass crimes of the Nazis. Thus, the question of whether these acts should be prosecuted today does not arise, because they should be prosecuted. The aim of criminal proceedings is always to establish individual criminal responsibility. “
John Demjanjuk’s sentence marked a turning point in the administration of justice against Nazi criminals. (Photo 12 May 2011)
About ten years ago, proof of direct personal involvement in the killings was required to initiate prosecutions. Although the former concentration camp guards spoke at the trials against the Nazis in the 1960s and 1970s, but only as witnesses. The situation changed in 2011 when a former concentration camp guard John (Ivan) Demjanjuk was sentenced. Since then, according to Will, “the performance of even general official duties in a concentration camp at a time when there were obvious systematic acts of murder can serve as a basis for prosecution for complicity.” For this reason, it is no longer necessary to establish specific facts of personal participation in crimes at a certain time in relation to certain persons.
Turning point – the verdict in the Demjanjuk case
A Munich court in 2011 sentenced 91-year-old John Demjanjuk to five years in prison for aiding more than 28,000 murders. The verdict stated that Demjanjuk was part of the Nazi killing machine. Since then, several more people have been convicted: according to the court verdict, being guards, they assisted in crimes and knew about the systematic commission of murders in the camp or that the prisoners were undernourished precisely for the purpose of murder (that is, they acted “deliberately and voluntarily”) … In July 2020, the Hamburg Regional Court sentenced a 93-year-old former guard at the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk to a two-year suspended sentence for complicity in the murder of 5,232 people.
The question of whether each of the few remaining cases will go to trial often depends on whether the elderly are able to participate in the process. According to the medical report, the defendant, who appeared before the Neuruppin Regional Court, can spend in court from two to two and a half hours a day. The court has scheduled a hearing for 22 days until January 2022. An additional rest room has been equipped for the accused.
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