105-year-old investigated for crimes at Nazi PoW camp in Germany

German prosecutors are investigating a man aged 105 over allegations that he was an accessory to multiple counts of murder at a Nazi prisoner of war camp in World War Two.

The suspect is alleged to have been a camp guard at Stalag 326 VI K in Senne in northwestern Germany.

A similar case had also been under way involving a second former camp guard at Senne, Dortmund public prosecutor Sonja Frodermann said in a statement.

That suspect died a few months ago at the age of 99, she said.

No further details about the two former guards have been made public, however the two cases highlight the difficulties faced by prosecutors who continue to investigate Nazi-era crimes, with most of the remaining suspects already dead.

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. Many of those who did survive were treated as traitors on their return home.

But the PoW camp, or Stalag, at Senne was one of the biggest.

One in three Soviet PoWs entering Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945 went through the complex at Senne, according to the memorial site, and they often ended up doing forced labour in the wider region.

Living conditions at Stalag were horrific, and prisoners faced appalling mistreatment and malnutrition.

Of the 180,000-200,000 Soviet prisoners of war registered there, many died and tens of thousands are buried there. PoWs from France, Poland, Serbia and Belgium were also held at Senne.

The prosecutor made clear the investigation surrounding the 105-year-old was still under way and that the allegations of being an accessory to multiple murders related to his activities at Stalag 36.

There has been no statute of limitations in Germany for either murder or accessory to murder since 1979, to enable the prosecution of Nazi-era crimes.

Another centenarian camp guard from the Hemer Stalag VI A camp is also said to be under investigation.

However, bringing perpetrators to justice more than 80 years after the war is now fraught with difficulty.

Four years ago a 101-year-old concentration camp guard was given a five-year jail term for complicity in murder at Sachsenhausen. Josef Schütz was the oldest Nazi criminal ever brought to justice.

He never served time in jail and died in 2023 while appealing his sentence.

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.

Although prosecution of Nazi crimes is handled by the public prosecutors in the western city of Dortmund, cases are initially taken on by the central office for Nazi crime investigations in Ludwigsburg in the south-west.