Former SS officers charged with complicity in murders at Stutthof concentration camp

Officials in Dortmund said the two unnamed suspects, aged 92, and 93, had been involved in Nazi operations in occupied Poland.

“With their actions during their time as guards at the Stutthof concentration camp, the accused are believed to have been accessories in numerous killings,” a statement from the regional court in nearby Münster said.

The 92-year-old was based at Stutthof between June 1944 and May 1945 while the 93-year-old was a guard between June 1942 and September 1944.

Around 65,000 people died at Stutthof concentration camp, established by the Nazis in 1939 outside what is now Gdansk, before being liberated in 1945.

The suspects are accused of participating in the killing of more than 100 Polish prisoners in a gas chamber at the camp in June 1944 and of another 77 Soviet prisoners of war around the same time.

They are also accused of involvement in the killing of hundreds of Jews between August and December 1944 and of creating conditions which led to hundreds of prisoners contracting deadly diseases including typhus.

The Münster court said the two denied involvement in the deaths.

Photo credit: Pipodesign Philipp P Egli - Own work, CC BY 3.0