The trial of a former Nazi concentration camp SS medic has started at a provincial court in Germany.
The 95-year-old defendant, identified as Hubert Z by various media outlets, is accused of complicity in the murders of at least 3,681 people at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he served as a medic for one month in 1944.
According to the prosecutor, the defendant knew that it was an extermination camp and his activities at the camp contributed to its operation, and it was not necessary for him to have been directly involved in the murders to be prosecuted.
Defense lawyer Peter-Michael Diestel denies his client's guilt, arguing that during his stay at Auschwitz, he was tending to other SS members and soldiers.
The man, originally from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northeastern Germany, was a medic at Auschwitz in Poland between August 15 and September 14, 1944, a period during which 14 trains with at least 3,681 people on board arrived at the camp and were killed in the gas chambers there.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
The trial has been postponed three times over health concerns related to the defendant, whose medical reports detail high blood pressure and suicidal thoughts.
In June, a 94-year-old former SS guard, Reinhold Hanning, was sentenced to five years in prison for complicity in the deaths of 170,000 Auschwitz prisoners between Jan. 1943 and June 1944.
