Germany's Neuruppin Regional Court has convicted an unidentified 101-year-old man of more than 3,500 counts of accessory to murder for serving as a Nazi SS guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in World War II. The man denied the claim but according to the court, there was documentation that listed the man's name, birthdate, and place of birth, among other evidence. The judge sentenced him to five years in prison. From NPR:
"The court has come to the conclusion that, contrary to what you claim, you worked in the concentration camp as a guard for about three years," presiding Judge Udo Lechtermann said, according to dpa, adding that in doing so, the defendant had assisted in the terror and murder machinery of the Nazis."You willingly supported this mass extermination with your activity," Lechtermann said[…]
As in other camps, Jewish prisoners were singled out at Sachsenhausen for particularly harsh treatment, and most who remained alive by 1942 were sent to the Auschwitz death camp.
Sachsenhausen was liberated in April 1945 by the Soviets, who turned it into a brutal camp of their own.
