92-year old SS guard to face trial for helping to kill 5,230 people in Nazi death camp

A 92-year old German man will face trial in October for helping to murder 5,230 prisoners in a Nazi death camp during World War Two.

The man, identified as Bruno D, was an SS guard at the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk, Poland, from 1942 to 1945, where he is accused of aiding and abetting the murder of thousands of people. 

A spokesperson for the prosecutor said the man had made a partial confession and acknowledged his presence at the camp, where, he said, he had seen bodies being burned in the crematorium and knew that people were pushed into gas chambers. He was also aware of the so-called death block, where Jews were killed by being denied food, water and medical help. At least 5,000 people died there, Die Welt reports. 

Bruno said this didn’t make him guilty. “What use would it have been if I had left? they would have found someone else,” he said. 

About 65,000 people, including many Jews, were killed at Stutthof. Many were gassed with Zyklon B gas or were shot in the back of the head. 

Bruno was accused by prosecutors, when he was charged in April, of being a “cog in the murder machine who was aware of the circumstances” and of being able to “contribute to carrying out the orders to kill.” 

The man was 17 or 18 at the time of the killings and so he will be tried in a court for young defendants. He may face time in prison if he is found guilty. 

In 2011, a landmark conviction found that working in a Nazi camp was enough grounds for culpability, paving the way for more prosecutions to be brought. 

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