By Kirsten Grieshaber
Associated Press
BERLIN — A 101-year-old man was convicted Tuesday of 3,518 counts of complicity in murder for serving as a guard at the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp during World War II.
The Neuruppin regional court sentenced him to five years in prison.
The man, identified by the local press as Josef S., had denied working as an SS guard in the camp and having been an accessory to the murder of thousands of prisoners.
[Nazi-themed wedding organized by Hitler fanatic in Tlaxcala goes viral]
At the trial, which began in October, the defendant said that he had worked as a day laborer near Pasewalk, in northeastern Germany, during the period in question.
However, the court considered it proven that he worked in the camp outside Berlin between 1942 and 1945 as a member of the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party, the German news agency dpa reported.
Vladimir Putin compares the invasion of Ukraine with the fight against Nazi Germany
May 9, 202202:08
"The court has come to the conclusion that, contrary to what you claim, he worked in the concentration camp as a guard for about three years," presiding judge Udo Lechtermann said, according to dpa, adding that by doing so, the defendant he had contributed to the Nazi machinery of terror and death.
"You voluntarily supported this mass extermination with your activity," Lechtermann added.
The prosecution had based his house on documents about an SS guard with the defendant's name, date and place of birth, among others.
[Latina girls are attacked for conversing in Spanish on the school bus: "I don't care if there are racists, I will continue to speak my language"]
For logistical reasons, the process was held in a gym in Brandenburg/Havel, the place where the centenarian resides.
Among other limitations, the man could only participate in the hearing for about two and a half hours each day.
The trial was interrupted several times for health reasons and hospital stays.
Sachsenhausen became operational in 1936 just north of Berlin and was the first camp opened after Adolf Hitler gave the SS full control of the concentration camp system.
More than 200,000 people were held there between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands of prisoners died of hunger, disease, forced labor or other causes, in addition to medical experiments and systematic extermination operations of the SS, such as shooting, hanging and gassing. .
