The authorities are investigating an individual whose name has not been released by the prosecution and who is considered a suspect in complicity in the murders committed on the premises of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the years 1943 and 1945, according to the chief prosecutor, Thomas Hauburger, in an official statement.
This individual faces accusations of having actively supported, as a member of SS guard teams, the cruel and sadistic killing of thousands of prisoners. If the judicial process proceeds, the defendant, who was under 21 at the time of the events, would be tried in the juvenile courtroom of the high court in Hanau, located in western Germany.
A psychiatric analysis carried out in October 2022 concluded that the defendant is “partially fit to stand trial,” as the prosecutor pointed out.
The Sachsenhausen concentration camp, from its inauguration in 1936 until its liberation by Soviet forces on April 22, 1945, witnessed the internment of approximately 200,000 prisoners, mostly political opponents, Jews, and homosexuals. Sadly, tens of thousands of them perished, mainly due to exhaustion from forced labor and inhumane conditions of detention.
In Germany, trials of former Nazi concentration camp guards have increased in recent years, reflecting the country’s commitment to addressing its past and pursuing justice for heinous crimes committed during the Holocaust.