With Over 3,500 Counts Of Accessory To Murder, Ex-Nazi Sentenced To Prison At 101 Years Of Age
Josef Schuetz, an ex-Nazi guard was sentenced to five years imprisonment after being convicted for over 3,500 counts of accessory to murder… at 101 years of age.
Breakthroughs in the case came after prosecutors used old identification documents to build a case that he was, in fact, a Nazi guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1942 and 1945.
During this time, the prosecution alleged that he aided and abetted the murder of different groups of prisoners by firing squad and poison gas, according to Agence-France Presse.
The trial began last October and had experienced several hiccups along the way due to Scheutz’s waning health.
Scheuetz denied the allegations, claiming he was merely an agricultural labourer in a different area of the country at the time.
He even said the words: “I don’t know why I am here” on the last day of his trial last Monday, as he limped before prosecutors with the aid of a Zimmer-frame.
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Oranienburg, Germany
Sachsenhausen was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945.
It held many political prisoners during the second world war, including Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili.
The camp was outfitted with several subcamps overseen by Nazi officials who mobilized prisoners into forced labour. Though executions were also carried out by way of a gas chamber in the same camp. A medical experimentation area was also found there.
Today, the concentration camp is open to the public as a memorial of the harrowing atrocities that went on during World War II.
What do you make of the trial?