Former concentration camp guard (101) has to go to prison for five years

Created: 06/28/2022, 10:33 am

Concentration camp guard (101) has to go to prison for five years.

© Monika Skolimowska/dpa

The Neuruppin district court has sentenced a former guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp to five years in prison.

Neuruppin – The court found the 101-year-old Josef S. guilty of aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder on Tuesday in Brandenburg an der Havel.

With the sentence, the judges followed the request of the public prosecutor's office.

The chamber therefore came to the conclusion that S. had been deployed in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for three years.

The accused "willingly supported the mass extermination" with his guard work, said the presiding judge Udo Lechtermann.

Concentration camp guard responsible for aiding and abetting the murder of more than 3,500 cases

The prosecution had accused S. of being an accessory to murder in more than 3,500 cases.

Accordingly, between 1942 and 1945 he is said to have “knowingly and willingly” participated in the murder of camp inmates.

He is said to have belonged to the guard battalion of the concentration camp, in which the SS had stationed a large contingent, until 1945.

Prosecutors asked for five years in prison.

The defense, on the other hand, applied for an acquittal because their client could not be proven to have done anything specific to his work in the camp.

During the trial that began in October last year, the accused himself denied having worked in the camp.

In his last word before the verdict was announced, Josef S. again protested his innocence.

The hearing took place in a sports hall in Brandenburg an der Havel due to the proximity to S.'s place of residence and for reasons of space.