German Court Finds 93-Year-Old Man Guilty Of Nazi Crimes

JAKARTA - A German court has convicted a 93-year-old man for his assistance in the murder of 5,232 prisoners, mostly Jews, in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

Reported by Antara, Thursday, July 23, the defendant named Bruno D. at that time was a guard of the Nazi paramilitary organization, Schutzstaffel (SS), at the Stutthof concentration camp located near Gdansk (now Polish territory).

Bruno was found guilty of his involvement in the massacres between August 1944 and April 1945, a Hamburg court ruling was read out on Thursday.

Bruno acknowledged his presence in the camp, but denied that he was guilty.

About 65,000 people, including Jews, were killed or died at Stutthof, according to a description on the camp's museum website. Prosecutors had different opinions regarding the method of murder, whether it was shot in the back of the head or given Zyklon B's lethal gas.

Considering Bruno's age was 17 or 18 at the time the crime was committed, he was charged with juvenile punishment. Prosecutors charged him with three years in prison.

Earlier, at the final hearing to hear the defendant's testimony held earlier this week, Bruno apologized for the suffering suffered by the victims but was unwilling to take responsibility for it, German media reported.

"I want to apologize to everyone who has to go through these hell-like conditions, as well as to their relatives and also to the survivors," said Bruno.

The defendant's deteriorating health condition meant that trial sessions were limited to 2 to 3 hours at a time.

Even though the number of suspects in Nazi crimes has shrunk due to age, prosecutors are still trying to bring the perpetrators to justice for their crimes.

A lawsuit in 2011 paved the way for more prosecutions for Nazi crimes, which also determined that working in a concentration camp was guilty enough, without the need for evidence of a more specific crime case.