Trial of former SS sergeant halted due to dementia

A German court says it will not proceed with the trial of a former SS sergeant who served as a medic in the Auschwitz death camp because the 94-year-old is suffering from dementia.

The Neubrandenburg state court said experts had determined that Hubert Z was unfit for trial and that his condition was getting worse.

He is accused of having served as a medic in an SS hospital in Auschwitz in 1944.

Schwerin prosecutors charged him with 3,681 counts of accessory to murder earlier this year, arguing that by serving in that role he helped the extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland function.

His attorney had argued there was no evidence that his client had participated in any concrete criminal act.