The Neuruppin District Court sentenced him to five years in prison. The unnamed man, who lives in the state of Brandenburg, has denied that he worked as an SS guard in the camp and that he helped and instigated the killing of thousands of prisoners. H pleaded not guilty again Monday, shortly before Tuesday’s verdict. “I do not know why I am here,” he said again at the end of the process. During the cross-examination, the accused had previously said that he had done “absolutely nothing”. He denied knowing the huge crimes committed in Sachsenhausen, saying he was a farm worker at the time. Holocaust survivor Leon Schwarzbaum holds a photo in the courtroom during the trial (Reuters) Prosecutors say he “knowingly and willingly” took part in crimes as a guard at the camp. They provided documents for a guardian with the same name, date of birth and place of birth as the man, as well as other documents. The court found him working in the camp on the outskirts of Berlin between 1942 and 1945 as a conscript member of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing, the German news agency dpa reported. “The court concluded that, contrary to what you claim, you worked in the concentration camp as a guard for about three years,” said Presiding Judge Udo Lechtermann, adding that in this way the accused had aided in terrorism. and Nazi assassination machines. “You have willingly supported this mass extermination with your activity,” Mr Lechtermann said. For organizational reasons, the trial took place in a gym in Brandenburg / Havel, the 101-year-old’s residence. The man was only able to stand trial to a limited extent and could only attend the trial for about two and a half hours each day. The trial was adjourned several times for reasons of health and hospital stay. Complaints against him include involvement in “executions by expulsion of Soviet prisoners of war in 194” and the development of “Zyklon B poison gas” in the gas chambers of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The monument of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany (Omer Messinger / Getty Images) He has been on trial in the Neuruppin District Court since October. Hearings on the case took place in the nearby eastern city of Brandenburg, near the man’s house. More than 200,000 people – mostly Jews but also members of the Roma community, opponents of the regime and homosexuals – were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945 by the Nazis. Tens of thousands died as a result of forced labor or as a result of immoral medical experiments, starvation and disease, in addition to the mass killings that took place there. Sachsenhausen was liberated in April 1945 by the Soviets, who turned it into their own brutal camp. Tuesday’s verdict is based on a recent legal precedent in Germany, according to which anyone who helped run a Nazi camp could be prosecuted for complicity in the killings there.
