Germany investigates alleged 105-year-old Nazi POW camp guard

German prosecutors are investigating a 105-year-old man suspected of serving as a guard at the Nazi prisoner-of-war camp Stalag 326 VI K in the Senne region during World War II. The man is accused of being an accessory to multiple murders. The camp held up to 200,000 Soviet POWs, of whom many died from malnutrition, disease, and forced labor. The investigation follows recent prosecutions of elderly former Nazi camp staff, though time is running out eight decades after the war.

German prosecutors announced on Thursday that they are investigating a 105-year-old man suspected of serving as a guard at the Nazi prisoner-of-war camp Stalag 326 VI K in the Senne region of western Germany during World War II. The man is accused of being an accessory to multiple murders through his activities at the camp. The case was first reported by the Bild newspaper, which noted that another former guard at the same camp had recently been investigated but died in the interim. The Senne camp housed between 180,000 and 200,000 Soviet prisoners of war between 1941 and April 1945, when it was liberated by American troops. According to the memorial at the site, of the approximately 5.3 to 5.7 million Soviet prisoners of war taken into German captivity overall, between 2.3 and three million did not survive. Soviet prisoners suffered from malnutrition, inadequate medical care, appalling sanitary conditions, and forced labor. The investigation follows several recent trials of elderly Nazi camp staff, spurred by the 2011 conviction of former Sobibor death camp guard John Demjanjuk. However, time is running out 80 years after the war ended. Josef Schuetz, a former guard sentenced in June 2022 to five years in prison, died less than a year later at age 102. In April 2025, an alleged former guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp died before trial.