Trial of a former SS guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp for accessory to murder in more than 3,000 instances.

The survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps are carefully watching the current proceedings at the District Court of Neuruppin in the trial against a former SS guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp for accessory to murder in more than 3,000 cases. In Berlin, the Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, Christoph Heubner, commented on the proceedings as follows:

"For the very aged survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps, this trial is yet another important example of the fact that justice knows no expiry date, and the prosecution of the SS perpetrators should continue despite old age. Nevertheless, for the survivors it is a constant and considerable burden that the prosecution and sentencing of the perpetrators has taken so terribly long, and that most of them have been able to lead a carefree life, without ever having to set foot inside a court of law. Quite apart from the judicial significance of this trial in Germany, the survivors regard the proceedings as an urgent worldwide warning signal, that meanwhile new Nazis have long since emerged who are now glorifying Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and other SS murder centres and are dreaming of reintroducing them."