This is a verdict for history: Josef Schütz, 101, is the oldest accused of Nazi crimes who has ever been tried.
The court has just sentenced him to five years in prison, the maximum sentence required.
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His trial had been held since October, for abuses he was accused of having committed when he was a guard in a German camp.
This former Waffen SS non-commissioned officer was prosecuted for "
complicity
" in the murder of 3,518 prisoners when he operated between 1942 and 1945 in the Sachsenhausen camp, then north of Berlin.
Never during the thirty or so hearings at the court in Brandenburg-sur-la-Havel (east), several times postponed due to his fragile health, has he expressed the slightest regret.
On the contrary, on Monday he again denied any involvement, wondering “
why he was there
”, and affirmed that “
everything is false
” about him.
“
I don't know why I'm here.
I tell the truth.
I have nothing to do with the police or the army, everything that has been said is false
“Said the accused, tremolos in his voice.
Dressed in a gray shirt and pajama bottoms, he entered the courtroom in Brandenburg-sur-la-Havel, 70 kilometers west of Berlin, in a wheelchair.
Previously, he had listened without reacting to the pleadings of his lawyer who, unsurprisingly, asked for his acquittal.
"
At 101, he is the oldest defendant in German history, so I demand his acquittal
," said Master Stefan Waterkamp.
“
We don't have a photo of him in an SS uniform
” but only have “
signs
” of his possible activity in Sachsenhausen, he said.
“
As of 1973, the investigators had in possession of the elements on him but they did not prosecute him.
At the time, witnesses could have been heard, now they are all dead or no longer able to speak
,” he added.
"
The danger of this court would be to try to make up for the errors of the previous generation of judges
", launched Stefan Waterkamp.
