German prosecutors in Dortmund are investigating a 105-year-old man over allegations that he was an accessory to multiple murders at Stalag 326 VI K, a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp in Senne in northwestern Germany during World War Two.
The man is alleged to have served as a guard at the camp. Prosecutors have not said whether they will bring formal charges, what specific role he is alleged to have played in killings or camp conditions, or whether he could stand trial.
The inquiry comes as German authorities continue to examine alleged Nazi crimes involving suspects of advanced age. A second former guard from the Senne camp was under investigation before dying a few months ago aged 99. Another centenarian who was a guard at the Hemer Stalag VI A camp is also said to be under investigation.
German law permits such inquiries despite the passage of time. There has been no statute of limitations for murder or accessory to murder in Germany since 1979. That means prosecutors must still establish evidence of a suspect's individual criminal responsibility, even where the alleged conduct occurred during the war.
Stalag 326 operated between 1941 and 1945 and was one of the largest Nazi prisoner-of-war camps. More than 300,000 prisoners of war passed through it during its existence. One in three Soviet prisoners of war entering Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945 passed through the Senne complex.
Between 180,000 and 200,000 Soviet prisoners of war were registered at the camp. The majority of those held were Soviet soldiers captured on the Eastern Front. Prisoners from France, Poland, Serbia, Belgium and Italy, as well as Jews, were also detained there or transported onward.
Prisoners endured malnutrition, inadequate medical care and appalling sanitary conditions. They were also subjected to forced labour, disease and beatings. Estimates of the number of deaths at Stalag 326 range from 15,000 to 70,000.
More than 9,000 Soviet prisoners of war were still alive at the camp when US troops liberated it on 2 April 1945. A cemetery for Soviet soldiers lies somewhat apart from the former camp. Plaques and gravestones there record the names of known victims, alongside their birth and death dates.
The losses at Senne formed part of a far wider catastrophe for Soviet troops taken prisoner by Germany. More than 5.3 million soldiers from the Soviet Red Army were held in German captivity during World War Two, and half are thought to have died.
Recent German cases have shown that convictions remain possible in prosecutions of elderly former Nazi camp personnel. Four years ago, a 101-year-old concentration camp guard received a five-year jail term for complicity in murder at Sachsenhausen. Josef Schütz, described as the oldest Nazi criminal ever brought to justice, died in 2023 while appealing his sentence and never served time in jail.
A former Nazi concentration camp secretary was convicted in 2022 of abetting murder and given a suspended jail term. She died last year aged 99.
The Dortmund investigation has yet to reach the charging stage. Its outcome will depend on whether prosecutors can establish evidence linking the 105-year-old suspect to the alleged crimes at Stalag 326 and whether proceedings can continue while he is alive and able to take part.
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