In the trial of a former guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the accused was sentenced to five years in prison for being an accessory to murder in 3,518 cases. The regional court in Neuruppin thus follows the request of the public prosecutor. The 101-year-old’s defense attorney had pleaded for an acquittal or a suspended sentence if convicted.
The accused had always denied having worked in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp between 1942 and 1945. The prosecution was therefore based on documents with the name and dates of the man.
The trial before the Neuruppin District Court started in October 2021, but had to be interrupted several times due to the defendant’s health condition. This is one of the reasons why the process was not conducted in Neuruppin, but in Havel in Brandenburg, where the man lived.
The verdict against the guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp will presumably be followed by other trials at other concentration camps
Since the verdict against John Demjanjuk in 2011, the way the judiciary deals with the crimes of National Socialism has changed. At that time, Demjanjuk, who worked as a Ukrainian “auxiliary” in the Sobibor murder camp, was convicted in Munich of being an accessory to murder. Even if the verdict never became final, since then the Central Office of the State Justice Administration for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg has been looking for former guards and SS people who are still alive.
When the “accountant of Auschwitz”, Oskar Gröning, was convicted in 2016, the line prevailed at the Federal Court of Justice that everyone who worked in concentration camps is considered part of the murder machinery and must therefore be sentenced at least as an accessory to murder. Like murder, aiding and abetting murder does not become time-barred. For example, the former guard at the Stutthof concentration camp, Bruno D., was convicted last summer. The verdict against the 96-year-old former secretary to the commander of the Stutthof concentration camp is expected in October 2022. She was briefly taken into custody after escaping from the nursing home.
According to information from Ludwigsburg, there are currently various other proceedings relating to concentration camps at the public prosecutor’s offices in Erfurt, Weiden, Neuruppin, Hamburg and at the general public prosecutor’s office in Celle. They concern the Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme concentration camps. The verdict against the guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp will probably be followed by further trials. Even if not in every case, because the accused are not fit to stand trial or have already died.