Ex-Nazi Death Camp Guard Faces Charges In Berlin Over Murders

[appalachiablue]

Source: Deutsche Welle

German prosecutors have charged a 95-year-old with being an accessory to the murder of more than 36,000 people at the Mauthausen concentration camp. The man allegedly served as a guard there towards the end of the war.

95-year-old Berlin local has been indicted on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of tens of thousands of inmates at the Nazis' Mauthausen death camp during World War II, the Berlin public prosecutor's office said on Friday.

The suspect, identified only as Hans H. for legal reasons, is alleged to have worked as an SS guard at the camp in northern Austria from mid-1944 to early 1945. He was in his early 20s at the time.

Some 36,223 prisoners perished at the complex in the period he was there, a statement from the prosecutor's office said. "The killings were mostly carried out through gassing, but also through 'death bath actions' [gassing in shower rooms -- editor's note], injections and shootings, as well as through starvation and freezing," it said.

Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/ex-nazi-death-camp-guard-faces-charges-in-berlin-over-murders/a-46428119

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The suspect is not accused of a specific killing, but assisting in the deaths of thousands of people by helping the camp function. Accessory to murder. He was "aware of all the killing methods as well as the disastrous living conditions of the inmates," and that he knew they "could only be killed in this way, with this degree of regularity, if the victims were guarded by people like him" according to prosecutors. A Berlin court will review the charges and determine if the suspect is fit to stand trial.
New laws are making it possible for people to be prosecuted for being part of the Nazi killing machine, even if they did not personally kill anyone.
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>MORE, AFP, "Berlin Man, 95, Charged Over 36,000 Deaths in Nazi Camp," 9 hrs ago.

German prosecutors on Friday charged a 95-year-old man with more than 36,000 counts of accessory to murder over his alleged time as a Nazi concentration camp guard during World War II. The allegations against the accused, identified only as Hans H., concern atrocities committed at the Mauthausen camp in Austria, the Berlin public prosecutor's office said in a statement.
> Hans H. is believed to have belonged to the SS-Totenkopfsturmbann (Death's Head Battalion) between summer 1944 and spring 1945 at Mauthausen, part of the Nazis' vast network of concentration camps where inmates were forced to perform slave labour. Prosecutors argue that by working as a guard at the site, the accused contributed to tens of thousands of prisoner deaths. During his time at the camp, at least 36,223 inmates died. Guards took part in killings by gas, fatal injections, gunfire and other means, while many more prisoners died of hunger or frostbite, prosecutors said.
A total of 200,000 people were held at Mauthausen, half of whom died before the camp's liberation by US troops in May 1945.

Germany has been racing to put on trial surviving SS personnel, after the legal basis for prosecuting former Nazis changed in 2011 with the landmark conviction of former guard John Demjanjuk. He was sentenced on the grounds that he served as a cog in the Nazi killing machine at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland, rather than for murders or atrocities linked to him personally.
German courts subsequently convicted Oskar Groening, an accountant at Auschwitz, and Reinhold Hanning, a former SS guard at the same camp, for complicity in mass murder. Both men were convicted at age 94 but died before they could be imprisoned. Earlier this month, a former Nazi concentration camp guard, Johann Rehbogen, went on trial in the western city of Muenster accused of complicity in mass murder at the Stutthof camp in occupied Poland.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/berlin-man-95-charged-over-36000-deaths-in-nazi-camp/ar-BBQ1cfB?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15



- Left- Prisoners transporting granite stones up 186 "Stairs of Death" at the quarry in Mauthausen Camp (SS photo.) An estimated 10,000 people were murdered at the main Mauthausen, Austria slave labor death camp.



- SS officers walk up the "Stairs of Death" at Mauthausen.




- Liberation of Mauthausen by the U.S. 11th Armored Division, 3rd U.S. Army, May 6, 1945. The banner in the background being roughly translated from Spanish as, "Anti-fascist Spaniards salute the forces of liberation".

WIKI, The Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex consisted of the Mauthausen concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly 12 mi east of Linz, Upper Austria) plus a group of nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany. Starting with the camp at Mauthausen, the number of subcamps expanded over time and by the summer of 1940 Mauthausen and its subcamps had become one of the largest labour camp complexes in the German-controlled part of Europe.

As at other Nazi concentration camps, the inmates at Mauthausen and its subcamps were forced to work as slave labour, under conditions that caused many deaths. Mauthausen and its subcamps included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and plants assembling Me 262 fighter aircraft. In Jan. 1945, the camps contained roughly 85,000 inmates. The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex. Mauthausen was one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany, and the last to be liberated by the Allies.

The two largest camps were intended to be the toughest camps for the "incorrigible political enemies of the Reich." It was referred to by the nickname Knochenmhle - the bone-grinder (literally bone-mill). Unlike many other concentration camps, which were intended for all categories of prisoners, *Mauthausen was mostly used for extermination through labour of the intelligentsia - educated people and members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by the Nazi regime during World War II. The Mauthausen main camp is now a museum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen-Gusen_concentration_camp_complex



Some of the Mauthausen-Gusen subcamps in Austria.

[BigDemVoter]

1. I DO support charging Nazis with murder at ANY age.

Nonetheless, these people could have been punished in a more satisfactory manner had the German Government not blocked prosecutions of the "little people" like camp guards in the years following the war.

And yes, these people should have lost years of their lives in prison. This 95-year-old man is beyond that now. I'm not saying they shouldn't proceed with prosecution as murder has no time limit on punishment. But what does this man have to lose?

[appalachiablue]

2. Suspects should have been prosecuted decades ago. It's so late now

but what else can they do. Rather absurd, offensive.

[iamthebandfanman]

5. Hmmm

Personally i could care less how old the person is. if for no other reason, he should be arrested so that his crimes are on record. he shouldnt be able to die without the world knowing what he participated in. its never too late to give nazis what they deserve. its really sad how quickly we took in nazis into our country (operation paperclip, just for starters) for the sake of fighting the boogieman that is communism.
and now, to top it all off, too much time has passed since WW2 and the lessons learned are fading away from the youth.

[oldlibdem]

3. I don't understand how...

every ss person was not interogated thoroughly on who they commited these crimes with. Seems like the prosecutor's were lazy, or inept or both.

[JudyM]

6. and why did it take until 2011 to enact a law to prosecute for complicity, rather than having to

prove specific killings?!

[appalachiablue]

9. A real travesty on top of untolled misery, murder and war.

Operation Paperclip secrecy and cover up may have been factors as well.

[jb5150]

4. Complicated situation ...

at the end of WW2, no nation had the stomach for all the executions that would have (and should have) been carried out.

[christx30]

7. They really should have gone after the Stasi after the wall fell.

Those guys are a lot younger, and their crimes are as brutal as a guard at a concentration camp. I know they won’t be, because of German court decisions, but that was a dumb assed decision. No one should be able to treat their fellow citizen like that and be free after the regime changes. Maybe people wouldn’t get jobs like that if they knew they’d end up at the end of a rope eventually.

[Farmer-Rick]

8. I'm surprised traitor Trump hasn't come out in support of the Nazi.

[oldlibdem]

10. he has...

Remember his "very fine people" speech RE: Charlottesville?