(JTA) — A former Nazi SS guard, now 94, went on trial Tuesday for being complicit in the mass murders of several hundred prisoners at the Stutthof Nazi concentration camp.
Johann Rehbogen, who uses a wheelchair and is in declining health, was younger than 21 when he worked at the camp between 1942 and 1944 and thus is being tried in a juvenile court in the western German city of Münster.
The trial is scheduled to last until January and will only convene twice a week on non-consecutive days due to Rehbogen’s age and health.
More than 60,000 people were killed at Stutthof during World War II.
Rehbogen has told investigators that he was not aware of the killings, which took place in gas chambers, with shots of poison to the heart, shootings and exposure, and did not participate in them.
Prosecutors say that he knew about the murders at the Stutthof and that the guards were essential to the killings.
The juvenile court has not identified Rehbogen by name. His name was made public by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
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