Man, 105, probed over crimes in alleged function as Nazi PoW guard after mass graves discovered
A man who is believed to have worked as a Nazi prison guard has been accused of being involved in a series of murders at a prisoner-of-war camp during World War Two.
The man allegedly worked at Stalag Prisoner of War camp(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)
An 105-year-old alleged Nazi prison guard has been accused of being an accessory to multiple murders at a prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War.
The suspect, who has not been named, is alleged to have worked as a guard at the notorious Stalag 326 VI-K in Senne, northwest Germany.
While it is not known exactly how many people lost their lives at the site, multiple mass graves have been discovered since 1945. Some estimates suggest that between 15,000 and 70,000 people died there, many as a result of abuse. The accused man is the second alleged former guard to be investigated over his role at the camp. A 99-year-old suspect was also investigated earlier this year but died a few months later.
The man allegedly worked guarding a PoW camp (Image: Getty Images)
Hundreds of thousands of captured troops, mainly from the Soviet Union but also from France, Poland, Serbia and Belgium, were held at Stalag 326.
It is not the first time in recent years that someone accused of Nazi-era crimes has faced proceedings at an advanced age. Irmgard Furchner, dubbed the “Secretary of Evil”, went on trial over her work for the commandant of the Stutthof concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Furchner dealt with the commandant’s correspondence from 1943 to 1945, when she was 18 and 19. She was tried under juvenile law because she had been under 21 at the time. Prosecutors argued that her work helped the camp operate and made her an accessory to the murders committed there.
Irmgard Furchner has since died (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
During her trial, Furchner told the Itzehoe Regional Court: “I am sorry about everything that happened. I regret that I was at Stutthof at that time.”
Her lawyers requested her acquittal, arguing that the evidence hadn’t shown beyond doubt that Furchner knew about the systematic killings at the camp, meaning there was no proof of intent as required for criminal liability.
Prosecutors accused Furchner of being part of the apparatus that helped the Nazis Stutthof camp function during the Second World War.
Irmgard Furchner during her time as secretary at Stutthof in 1944
The court found her guilty in December 2022 of being an accessory to the murder of 10,505 prisoners and handed her a two-year suspended sentence. Her conviction was upheld in 2024. Furchner died the following year aged 99.
