5 former Buchenwald guards face possible charges in Germany

German prosecutors are investigating whether to bring accessory to murder charges against five men who were guards at the Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II.

Jens Rommel, head of the federal prosecutors’ office that investigates Nazi war crimes, confirms a story in taz newspaper Thursday that his office had found sufficient evidence against the men to turn their cases over to Thuringia state prosecutors. His office can’t bring charges.

Some 56,000 people were killed at Buchenwald, which was near the German city of Weimar.

Rommel says the suspects are between ages 92 to 96 and all live in Germany. He says all but one served at Buchenwald during 1944-45.

They’re suspected as accessories to murder for helping the camp function, although there isn’t evidence of involvement in specific deaths.

AP

The Oscar-nominated documentary "Liberators" falsely claimed a battalion of African-American soldiers had helped to free the Buchenwald concentration camp. (US Army, US Defense Visual Information Center, Image #HD-SN-99-02764, Wikimedia Commons)
Inmates at the Buchenwald concentration camp, days after liberation. Elie Wiesel is second row from the bottom, seventh from the left, next to the bunk post. (US Army/US Defense Visual Information Center/Wikimedia Commons)

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