A former 100-year-old Nazi concentration camp detainee is on trial today in a German court, the oldest accused of Nazi crimes who has been brought to justice in the country.
Joseph S., a former sergeant in the Woten-SS Totenkopf (Death Head) Division, is charged with "complicity in the murder" of 3.518 detainees while he was a prisoner at the Saxenhausen concentration camp near Berlin from 1942 to 1945.
The crimes he is accused of
In 1942 Joseph S. was 21 years old. He is accused, among other things, of executing Soviet prisoners and of "aiding and abetting the Zyklon B gas massacre" of other prisoners.
From 1936, when it began operating until its liberation from the Soviet army on April 22, 1945, some 200.000 prisoners, mostly Jews, Jews and homosexuals, passed through the Saxenhausen concentration camp.
Tens of thousands of them died mainly due to the hard work they were subjected to and the inhumane living conditions.
The trial comes a week after the postponement of the trial of 96-year-old Irmgard Fourchner, a former secretary at another Nazi concentration camp. However, her trial had to be postponed to October 19, after the 96-year-old tried to escape and was arrested a little later. 
What penalty is he threatened with?
Four former SS have been tried and convicted in Germany in the last ten years. Theoretically, Joseph S. risks being sentenced to three years in prison, but his sentence will be rather symbolic due to his age.
Little is known about his life: after his release in 1947, he lived a quiet life in the state of Brandenburg and worked as a locksmith, according to the Bild newspaper.
"These trials are particularly important for survivors and their descendants. "They want justice to be done," said Stephanie Bora, a researcher at the Berlin Museum of Terrorism Topography, which is dedicated to Nazi crimes.
In July 2020, a court sentenced Bruno Day, then 93, a former prison guard at the Stutthof concentration camp, to two years in prison.
Eight other former SS cases are currently being heard by various German courts, according to the National Socialist Crimes Bureau.
in.gr