The former SS guard Ernst Tremmel has died at the age of 93, a few days before his trial was due to begin in Hanau. He was facing the charge of accessory to murder in more than one thousand cases during his time in Auschwitz extermination camp.

Christoph Heubner, Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, said on behalf of the survivors:

“Many people in France and the Netherlands were anticipating the court case against the former member of the SS Death’s Head Unit as a token of belated justice. The survivors deeply regret that now the former SS man Tremmel, like so many of his kind, has taken unatoned crimes with him to the grave. He never showed any sign of remorse, and he never assumed responsibility for his decision to join the SS voluntarily. In addition to this, he never gave especially young German people the chance to learn from his experiences, to where hatred and the contempt for mankind can lead. And so he remains a typical representative of that shady and stubbornly silent post-war German society of which he was a part until his death.”