A suspected concentration camp guard has been on trial since October. The trial against the 101-year-old was now on the brink. However, the verdict is due today.
In the trial of a suspected former SS guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the verdict is expected this Tuesday.
A now 101-year-old man has been charged in the Neuruppin district court with being an accessory to the murder of more than 3,500 prisoners as a guard at the concentration camp from 1942 to 1945.
The process began in October last year. He had to be suspended several times because the accused was ill and was at times even completely on the brink. For organizational reasons, the trial is being conducted at the defendant’s place of residence in Brandenburg/Havel and not in Neuruppin.
Defense demands acquittal
Prosecutors are asking for five years in prison for the man. Co-plaintiff representative Thomas Walther had pleaded for a prison sentence of several years, which should not be less than five years. The defense, on the other hand, had asked for an acquittal on Monday. According to the case law of the Federal Court of Justice, being on guard duty in a concentration camp alone is not sufficient for a conviction, said defense attorney Stefan Waterkamp. Concrete acts of aid were not proven to the accused.
The elderly defendant had denied to the last that he had even worked in the concentration camp in today’s Oranienburg north of Berlin. On the other hand, the prosecution relies on numerous documents with the name, date and place of birth of the accused and other documents.
The accused had again protested his innocence in his final statement on Monday. “I don’t know what I should have done at all,” said the 101-year-old. He comes from Lithuania and does not know what was discussed in the process. “I don’t know why I’m sitting here in the penalty box,” he complained. “I have nothing to do with it.”
