Nazi guard Gregor Formanek, who is now 100 years old, is accused of “continually killing prisoners” at Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany during World War II
A 100-year-old concentration camp guard dubbed last Nazi should stand trial accused of murdering 3,300 Holocaust victims, the German high court has ruled.
Gregor Formanek had successfully appealed a decision to put him on trial for the “cruel and treacherous killing” of victims at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, back in May. The Hanau Regional Court excused him from prosecution, based on medical evidence declaring that he had a “permanent incapacity to stand trial”.
But now the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court has overturned that decision and sent the case back to Hanau for another hearing. This means that Formanek is likely to face trial early in 2025. Born in Romania, Formanek was the son of a German-speaking master tailor and joined the SS in July 1943 as a member of the notorious Sachsenhausen battalion.
Set up in 1936, the camp was seen as a model training ground for Hitler’s mass extermination of Jews. More than 200,000 prisoners passed through Sachsenhausen, notorious for its gas chambers and horrifying medical experiments. One damning document from the Main Personnel Office of the SS confirmed Formanek’s chilling past.
And an East German Stasi secret police document tells how he “continually killed prisoners”. Other evidence is said to show how he “supported the cruel and insidious killing of thousands of prisoners”.
At the end of the war, Formanek was captured by Russia’s Red Army and spent just 10 years behind bars before being released to find work as a porter. In later life, Formanek lived in comfort with his wife in a £400,000 apartment near Frankfurt.
