The Nazis still facing justice: After prosecution of 101-year-old guard, other cases set to come to court

A 101-year-old former Nazi guard was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of serving at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the Second World War.

Prosecutors said Josef Schuetz “knowingly and willingly” took part in crimes as a guard at the camp.

But his case, despite the passing of years since the events of World War Two, is far from the last. There are still several known cases of former Nazis workers being investigated by the German courts.

The Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, a German body which investigates war crimes committed during Nazi rule, said there are still at least six cases currently being investigated following the sentencing of the 101-year-old.

“There are mainly men, mainly guards,” head of the Central Office Thomas Walther told The Independent. “There are five men and one woman,” he added.

Mr Walther, who is known in Germany as the “last of the Nazi hunters” said the six former Nazi workers are all aged between 96 and 99 years old, but investigations were still in their preliminary stages.

He added that Germany has no limit on the people who can stand trial.

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“Conviction depends on their status of mental and physical health if they can stand trial, it depends on the decision of the public prosecutions office.

“In Germany we have no limitation for prosecuting people, there’s no age where they can’t be prosecuted. If anyone is 101 years old and he is fit enough, he can be accused,” he said.

In recent years, several cases have been abandoned as the accused died or were physically unable to stand trial. The last guilty verdict to be issued before Schuetz was issued to former SS guard Bruno Dey, who was handed a two-year suspended sentence in July 2021 at the age of 93.

Mr Walther, who heads up a team of prosecutors who track down the last surviving perpetrators of Nazi war crimes, said the six former Nazis worked across four concentration camps: Ravensbrück, a camp exclusively for women, Neuengamme, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen where the convicted 101-year-old served, and a POW camp.

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One of the cases that are under investigation is that of 97-year-old Irmgard Furchner. She has been accused of contributing as an 18-year-old to the murder of more than 11,000 people when she was a typist at the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943 and 1945.

Ms Furchner made international headlines when she went on the run for several hours, skipping a court appearance in September 2021. She was detained later that day in the nearby city of Hamburg.

She subsequently appeared in court in October 2021. According to Mr Walther, Furchner’s case is due to conclude this summer.

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Karen Pollock CBE, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said bringing Nazi crimes to justice is a more urgent task than ever.

“The passage of time is no barrier to justice when it comes to the heinous crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators,” she says.

“Every time someone is found guilty of these crimes, regardless of their age, the truth of the Holocaust is reaffirmed for all to see. As the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes fade from living memory, bringing perpetrators to justice, regardless of age, has never been more important.”