Concentration camp trial: judge calls on accused to testify
The defendant comes to the courtroom in Brandenburg / Havel. Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
As an SS guard, the defendant is said to have assisted the murder of thousands of concentration camp prisoners. Now the 100-year-old is on trial in Brandenburg.
In the trial of the mass killing of prisoners in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the presiding judge Udo Lechtermann urged the accused to testify about his activities during the Second World War.
The defendant has already declared twice that he was not in Sachsenhausen, but in the Lithuanian army, said Lechtermann on Friday at the end of the trial day. “If it was like that, it would be helpful if you could tell us what you did in Lithuania – then we can check it out.”
If, however, as read in the indictment, the defendant served as an SS guard in the concentration camp, the question arises as to whether the 100-year-old should not explain this accordingly during the trial. “That could dictate decency,” warned the presiding judge. For the survivors and descendants of the concentration camp involved as co-plaintiffs, this could be a satisfaction, said Lechtermann. Two co-plaintiffs had asked the defendant directly to admit his involvement in the murderous system of the concentration camp.
The defendant’s defense attorney, Stefan Waterkamp, then stated when asked that he would discuss this with his client. But he could not yet say whether he would make a statement on the next day of the trial next Thursday.
Searching for traces in archive material
According to the indictment, the 100-year-old is said to have assisted the murder of thousands of prisoners as an SS guard in the concentration camp from 1942 to 1945. The investigators had tracked down the 100-year-old through documents from archives, which documented the activity of a man with his name, birthday and place of birth in the SS guards of the concentration camp. The defense attorney had stated at the beginning of the trial that his client would not comment on the allegations and his activities during the Second World War.
Even spontaneous statements on the allegations that the accused made to a detective and a psychiatric expert may therefore not be used in the process at the request of the defense. On the second day of the trial, however, the defendant made a spontaneous statement in court that denied having been active in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
As the last witness according to the previous court plan, the co-plaintiff André Lassague from France reported the fate of his father, who was arrested as a member of the French resistance in autumn 1942 and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in early 1943. In February 1944 he was admitted to the infirmary and his health deteriorated afterwards. According to his comrades, his father was burned on March 27 in the concentration camp’s crematorium. “His comrades weren’t sure if he was completely dead when he was cremated,” said Lassague.
The trial before the 1st criminal chamber of the Neuruppin district court takes place in a sports hall in Brandenburg / Havel for organizational reasons. From next week on, the historian Stefan Hördler will be heard as an expert.
From 1936 to the end of the Second World War in 1945, more than 200,000 people were imprisoned in the concentration camp near Berlin. Tens of thousands of prisoners died from starvation, illness, forced labor, medical experiments and mistreatment or fell victim to systematic extermination by the SS.