Former SS guard, 92, will go on trial in Germany for Stutthof camp role

A 92-year old German man is to go on trial in October charged with helping to kill hundreds of Jews at the Stutthof death camp towards the end of the war.

The man, identified only as Bruno D, is accused of being an SS guard at the notorious concentration camp near Gdansk and of having been involved in the killing of 5,230 prisoners – many Jewish – between August 1944 and April 1945.

The German daily Die Welt reported that he has acknowledged being there, knowing that people were pushed into gas chambers, and seeing bodies being burned in the crematorium, but is arguing that this does not make him guilty.

About 65,000 people, including many Jews, died at Stutthof, which is located in modern-day Poland. Many were shot in the back of the head or gassed with the lethal Zyklon B gas.

The man was 17- or 18-years old at the time, so under German law he will be tried in a youth court, which has different sentencing guidelines. A landmark ruling in 2001 established culpability for those who say they were only working at the camps.

When he was first charged in April, prosecutors accused Bruno D of being “a cog in the murder machine who was aware of the circumstances” and of “having been able to contribute to carrying out the orders to kill”.