Trial against former concentration camp security guard: defendant does not want to comment on allegations

In the process of the mass killings in what was then the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the accused former SS security guard does not want to comment on the allegations. This was explained by his defender Stefan Waterkamp on Thursday at the start of the process under strict security precautions in Brandenburg / Havel.

The public prosecutor accuses the man as a member of an SS unit He was assisted in murder in 3,518 cases between January 1942 and February 1945.

However, his client wanted to comment on his personal circumstances on Friday, insofar as this did not concern the allegations, the lawyer said.

When reading the indictment, public prosecutor Cyrill Klement described in detail the systematic killings of thousands of camp inmates between 1941 and 1945.

This included mass shootings in special facilities, extermination campaigns in gas chambers and dying from exhaustion and illness. “The defendant supported this knowingly and willingly, at least by conscientiously exercising the guard duty, which was seamlessly integrated into the killing system.”

During the time the defendant was on duty in Sachsenhausen, the murder of 71 Dutch resistance fighters, the shooting of 250 “Jewish hostages” in retaliation for an attack on a Nazi exhibition in Berlin, and the beginning of the deportation of Jews took place Prisoners to Auschwitz. In 1943 a gas chamber was also installed in Sachsenhausen. The concentration camp was built in the summer of 1936. In total, more than 200,000 people were imprisoned here by the end of the Second World War in 1945.

Only the reading of the indictment was planned for the start of the trial on Thursday. A further 21 process days are planned until January. The accused was only able to stand trial for up to three hours a day. The process is also therefore Neuruppin moved to the vicinity of his place of residence in Brandenburg an der Havel, said a court spokeswoman: “A shorter journey means that more time is available for the main hearing.”

According to information from co-plaintiff’s attorney Thomas Walther, 16 co-plaintiffs are taking part in the process, including seven Concentration camp survivors and nine relatives of victims. According to his own statements, he represents eleven of them. According to Walther, the German judiciary neglected to deal with Nazi crimes for decades. For the joint plaintiffs, the proceedings are extremely important. “You will be heard there and that has not happened enough so far.”

Stefan Waterkamp, ​​the defendant’s attorney, also stated that the procedure was legally correct, but that it was far too late. “There could have been a lot more peace and justice if we had done that in the 1970s, 80s and 90s,” he said. Because then many more responsible persons could have been held accountable. “And that would have led to a much more comprehensive review.”

Broadcast: Inforadio, 07.10.21, 12:00 p.m.