A 95-year-old former medic at the Auschwitz death camp will go on trial next month on at least 3,681 counts of accessory to murder, German authorities say.
Hubert Zafke was a medical orderly at the camp from August 15, 1944 to September 14, 1945, when 14 trains carrying prisoners — including the teenage diarist Anne Frank — arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau where many would eventually be killed in the gas chambers.
Ahead of proceedings due to begin February 29, prosecutors said Zafke was “aware of the purpose of the Birkenau camp as an extermination camp” as well as of its structure.
“Given his awareness, the accused lent support to the organisation of the camp and was thereby both involved in and advanced the extermination,” said prosecutors in an earlier statement as they charged Zafke for complicity in the “cruel and insidious killings of at least 3,681” people.
The trial at the north-eastern town of Neubrandenburg comes after an appeals court overturned an earlier ruling that the elderly accused was unfit to stand trial.
Nevertheless the court acknowledged that he had “cognitive impairments and low physical capacity” and ordered regular breaks during the hearings, as well as medical care.
German media reports that Zafke is suffering from dementia.
— AFP
An old Jewish woman with children at Auschwitz-Birkenau, May 1, 1944 (Wikipedia/Hannolans/CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)
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