BERLIN — A German court says a doctor has determined a 95-year-old former SS medic who served at the Auschwitz death camp is not fit to stand trial.
The Neubrandenburg state court told the dpa news agency Friday that a court-appointed doctor had determined Hubert Zafke’s health was too poor.
The examination was made after Zafke’s trial — on 3,681 counts of accessory to murder, for allegedly helping the Nazi camp function — failed to get underway as planned Monday because a doctor ruled him unfit to be transported to the court building.
The doctor said he was suffering from a broken arm, high blood pressure and stress.
Other experts are still expected to examine Zafke ahead of the next scheduled date for a hearing, March 14.
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Zafke was working at the Nazi death camp from August 15 to September 14, 1944, a period when teenage diarist Anne Frank was imprisoned there.
Prosecutors charge that by serving at Auschwitz, the former medical orderly “knew of and willingly supported the industrially organized mass killing people in an insidious and cruel manner.”
AFP contributed to this report.
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