100-Year-Old Former Guard of Soviet POW Camp Found in Germany

The Dortmund prosecutor's office is investigating whether the 100-year-old former guard of the Nazi camp for Soviet prisoners of war was involved in murders. About 24,000 inmates died in the Stalag VI A camp in Hemere.

German law enforcement authorities are investigating a 100-year-old former guard of a camp for Soviet prisoners of war in Hemere. On Sunday, November 23, Deputy Head of the Center for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, Prosecutor Michael Otte, confirmed to DW that after completing the preliminary investigation, this agency has forwarded the case to the Dortmund prosecutor's office.

According to Dortmund prosecutor Andreas Brendel, the accused is charged with participating in "actions aimed at committing murder" while serving as a guard at the stationary camp (Stammlager, abbreviated Stalag) VI A in Hemere from 1943 to 1944. The prosecutor reported this to the newspaper Bild the day before.

The Case May Not Go to Trial

At the end of October, the Schleswig-Holstein newspaper Quickborner Tageblatt reported on this investigation. It noted that it is still uncertain whether the case will go to trial: for this to happen, the prosecutor's office must gather enough evidence, the accused must be deemed fit to stand trial, and must live to see the proceedings.

The Stalag VI A camp in Hemere was established in 1939. With its transformation in the fall of 1942 into a camp for prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, the mortality rate sharply increased - about 24,000 inmates died there. The conditions in the overcrowded camp were catastrophic: there was rampant unsanitary conditions and parasites, and dysentery and tuberculosis were rampant. Inmates were malnourished and forced to perform hard labor, including in coal mines. The camp was liberated by the U.S. Army in April 1945.

Recent Cases Against Nazi Accomplices

As noted by Quickborner Tageblatt in October, Germany is now on the verge of the "end of the legal processing of the Nazi era." Journalists from the publication recalled that the conviction of 97-year-old former secretary of the Stutthof concentration camp, Irmgard Furchner, handed down in December 2022, was already referred to as "the last sentence for a Nazi accomplice in Germany" and is likely to remain so.

According to the newspaper's estimates, three years ago, there were seven trials in Germany against former Nazi accomplices aged between 96 and 101 years. All these cases were closed as the accused died, were deemed unfit, or due to lack of evidence.