The Nazi past won’t let go of Germany. In Münster, a former SS-guard of a concentration camp because of a hundred counts of murder in aid of the process before the youth chamber of the regional court.
Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Majdanek, Birkenau or Treblinka – the name of this concentration camp of the Nazi regime have been etched in the memory of Germany and the world public. Names stand as synonyms for the inhumanity of the Hitler dictatorship. Far less well-known, the camp Stutthof near Danzig. There, the Nazis raged but from September 1939 until may 1945, with the same cruelty. About 110,000 people were overall detained in this concentration camp, about 65,000 of them survived. For a part of the atrocities that happened in the camp, must answer Tuesday to a former SS soldier in front of the regional court of Münster. The reproach: a hundred times as an accessory to murder. From 1942 to 1944, the now 94-year-old defendant from the district of Borken belonged to a security guard in Stutthof.
It was, among other things, upon review of the documentation of the Stutthof concentration camp to track down. It’s Laundry lists, and other documents had been evaluated, “which could be close to those people, who were as guards,” says the press Secretary of the regional court of Münster, Daniel Stenner, of the German wave. The Accused is said to have passed next to the guard also work commandos outside the camp.
Poison injected directly into the heart
According to the indictment, him aid will be charged, in particular, to the following offences: In June 1944, the SS had murdered members of more than 100 Polish prisoners in the gas chamber by the use of the poison gas Zyklon B. At least 77 wounded Soviet prisoners of war were of little were later killed in the same way. “In the framework of the so-called ‘final solution of the Jewish question’ killing, members of the SS from August until the end of 1944, an unknown number – several hundred Jewish prisoners in the gas chamber as well as in the carriages of the little train, which resulted in the camp”, – said in the indictment. And: The living conditions in the camp were targeted have been so bad that several hundred prisoners came through diseases, such as typhoid fever and typhus claimed the lives of.
A cross in memory of the Murdered in front of the gas chamber of the concentration camp Stutthof
The indictment does not spare the gruesome Details of the SS-murder machinery. Several hundred prisoners, who were no longer able to work, were killed by neck shots systematically. “This was caused in the prisoners the impression of a medical examination.” You had to stand in front of a wall-mounted bar, in front of the pad for a silenced pistol in the next room was. In addition, Doctors and paramedics of the SS in the hospital grounds, prisoners, including many Jewish women and children murdered, “by the injection of gasoline, and Phenol directly into the heart.”
Support of systematic killings
The defendant admitted to be in Stutthof have been in use, however denies any involvement in the murders. The prosecution accuses him, with his guard duty, the crime willingly have promoted. “If one determines that a security guard was involved in the structure of the bearing, and knowledge of the operations had, can be enough for a conviction,” explains the regional court’s press Secretary Stenner.
Similar to the head of the Central office for the investigation of Nazi crimes in Ludwigsburg, Jens Rommel speaks to the DW. The peculiarity of today’s trials against former Nazis would be to find someone directly to each of the murders may have been involved. “The allegations go, to have as a part of the warehouse-staff, the systematic killings in a concentration camp.” This is a new approach, “the aim of this small proportion, to carry a Single has to be punished, nevertheless, legally.”
Proceedings before the chamber of youth
Difficulties of the German criminal have the right System with the so-called Small in the hierarchy, had, with the young, with the Subordinated explains Rommel. Just because so many people were involved, could be done these crimes on this scale at all. “And we are trying to get in legally.” A development that is also Terror-the method how to 11. September go back, in which even the smallest of contributions subject to criminal penalties. For many decades, only very few of the Nazi criminals in Germany were prosecuted. If, then usually only the perpetrators were convicted of direct involvement in the murders could be proved.
As in the case of the concentration camp Stutthof, specifically, depends on a further factor. Because the defendant was, at the time of the murder 21 years old, must be in thirteen days rated of proceedings before the youth chamber of the regional court of Münster. The next question was then whether the defendant “met as an adult after the adult’s right to be treated or how a young person is assessed”, says the Nazi-investigator Rommel, “because he was after its development is still a young person.” The need to establish the court in the course of the process. The adult criminal law provides for accessory to murder, a sentence of three to fifteen years in prison. In adolescents, the assessment is generally mild.
A wooden watchtower above the entrance of the concentration camp
Due to his state of health, the elderly defendant is also deemed to have limited room for negotiation. According to the recommendation of an expert can only be a maximum of two days in the week negotiated. In this respect, it is also questionable whether the 94-Year-old could compete for a conviction of a prison sentence. Media reports remind us of Oskar Groening. The “accountant of Auschwitz” had been sentenced to 2015 due to complicity in the murder of more than 300,000 people to four years in prison – the prison died in commencement. The procedure against a second, 93-year-old accused of Wuppertal, because of the same allegations to Stutthof is treated contrary to original plans separately, because it can be assessed whether he is fit to stand trial.
Race against time
The 94-Year-old bark should not take the penalty in the case of a conviction, it would be a bitter pill for the twelve in addition to plaintiff and the families of victims from the USA, Canada, Israel and Poland, which have allowed the process to the concentration camp at Stutthof. The punishment of Nazi crimes – it is now more than ever a race against time.
Nazi-Investigator Jens Rommel
“The deeds are already 70 years old. Thus, it is increasingly difficult to make a living and is capable of action Accused to find”, says Jens Rommel from the Central office for the investigation of Nazi crimes. His sobering conclusion: “Overall, we must say that there are too few Suspects brought to justice, many perpetrators were punished too mildly, and that many procedures are too late.”