A German court said Thursday it would not put on trial a former guard at the Majdanek death camp who has been charged with being an accessory to murder, saying the 97-year-old is too sick to face court proceedings.
The Frankfurt state court said a comprehensive medical assessment of the suspect, whose name has not been released, had been delayed repeatedly by spells in a hospital. It said an expert determined that the man would not be able to follow proceedings "in an appropriate way" and a trial would pose a "significant danger" to his life.
Prosecutors allege that the man, who was charged in August 2017, worked as a guard at the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland between August 1943 and January 1944, and that he was a member of the SS's notorious Death's Head division.
In particular, he was accused of taking part in Operation Erntefest, or Operation Harvest Festival, on Nov. 3, 1943. On that day, at least 17,000 Jewish prisoners from Majdanek and others who were being used as forced laborers in and around the city of Lublin were shot in ditches just outside the camp. Music blared from the Majdanek loudspeakers to mask the sound of the killings.
Prosecutors can appeal against the Frankfurt court's ruling.
More than 70 years after the end of World War II, German prosecutors continue to bring new cases against Nazi war crime suspects. They have secured some notable convictions in recent years, but because of the suspects' advanced ages, the task of getting them to trial and seeing the proceedings through is becoming increasingly difficult.
Last week, the trial in Muenster of Johann Rehbogen, a former SS guard at the Stutthof concentration camp, collapsed after the 94-year-old defendant was hospitalized for heart and kidney issues. Several court hearings were canceled and he will be examined in January to determine whether his condition has improved enough to enable the trial to start again.
