100-year-old ex-Nazi camp guard to face trial after 80 years in Germany?

A German court ruled Tuesday that a lower court must re-examine the case of a 100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard. The man, identified by media as Gregor Formanek, was charged with aiding and abetting murder in 3,322 cases at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. He allegedly worked at the camp from July 1943 to February 1945.
A lower court previously declared Formanek unfit for trial due to his physical and mental condition. However, the higher regional court in Frankfurt overturned this decision, stating the initial assessment lacked sufficient evidence. "The expert himself stated that it was not possible to interview the defendant and that the opportunity for extensive psychiatric testing was not available," the court explained.
The Sachsenhausen camp operated between 1936 and 1945, imprisoning over 200,000 people, including Jews, Roma, political opponents, and homosexuals. Tens of thousands died due to forced labor, murder, medical experiments, starvation, and disease. Soviet troops liberated the camp in 1945.
This case follows a trend in Germany to prosecute surviving Nazi war criminals, even decades after World War II. A 2011 court decision allowed for prosecutions based on a defendant’s service within the Nazi killing apparatus, regardless of direct evidence of individual murders.