Germany has convicted a 101-year-old man of more than 3,500 counts of accessory to murder for serving at the Nazis' concentration camp in Sachsenhausen during World War II.
The former camp guard was sentenced by the Neuruppin Regional Court to five years in prison, though the man, identified by local media as Josef S, denied having worked as an SS guard at the camp or participating in the murder of thousands of prisoners.
Sachsenhausen was founded in 1936 and aims to be a model facility for Nazi death camps across Europe.
Between 1936 and 1945, more than 200,000 people were held there, with tens of thousands dying of starvation, disease, and forced labour among other causes, including medical experiments and systematic mass-killings.
The centenarian defendant claimed that he had worked as a farm laborer during that time. The court believes that he worked as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party's armed forces between 1942 and 1945.
The presiding judge said you willingly supported this mass extermination with your activity.
You watched deported people being tortured and murdered every day for three years. Prosecutors based their case on records relating to an SS guard with the defendant's name, date, and place of birth, as well as other documentation.
Estimates of the exact number of deaths at the Sachsenhausen camp vary.
Estimates of 100,000 to 50,000 people are more likely to be reached, while the numbers are more likely to be 40,000 to 50,000.
The defendant's lawyer had sought an acquittal, but now plans to appeal the verdict.
Given the advanced age of the defendant, the trial was held in a gymnasium near the 101 year-old's place of residence, where he was only able to participate in the trial for two and a half hours each day.
The process was interrupted several times for health reasons and hospital stays.
Germany's leading Jewish group welcomes the ruling despite these factors.
The verdict is to be welcomed, even though the defendant won't serve the full prison sentence due to his advanced age, the verdict is to be welcomed, said the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
The murder machinery was running because of the thousands of people who worked in the concentration camps. He said that they were part of the system, so they should take responsibility for it.
It is bitter that the defendant denied his activities until the end of the day and has shown no remorse. The verdict comes on the heels of a recent case in Germany that established that anyone who helped a Nazi camp function could be prosecuted for being an accessory to the murders committed within it.
A 96-year-old woman accused of working as a secretary for the SS commandant of the Stutthof concentration camp went to trial in September, where the defendant was charged with more than 11,000 counts of accessory to murder.