A new German court ruling could lead to a former SS guard facing justice for his alleged involvement in the ‘insidious killings’ of thousands of WWII prisoners at a notorious death camp.
Gregor Formanek, who is 100 years old, stands accused of participating in the murder of 3,322 individuals at the infamous WW2 prison Sachsenhausen during his time there from July 1943 to February 1945.
The detention camp was known for its gas chambers and horrifying medical experiments and executions used as a model for Auschwitz.
Previously deemed unfit to stand trial by a regional court following an expert assessment, Formanek hails from the Main-Kinzig district in the German state of Hesse.
The expert deemed the former SS man unfit due to his advanced age and alleged poor mental and physical condition, according to local media reports.Â
But now the higher regional court has overturned this decision following an appeal by the public prosecutor’s office and attorney Hans-Juergen Foerster, who represents co-plaintiffs in the proceedings.Â
The Frankfurt court found the expert’s decision had not been based on ‘sufficient facts’. ‘The expert himself stated that it was not possible to interview the defendant and that the opportunity for extensive psychiatric testing was not available,’ it said.
Gregor Formanek, 100, is accused of helping to murder 3,322 people at the notorious WW2 prison Sachsenhausen while working there between July 1943 and February 1945Â
A roll call in the early morning or late evening hours in front of the gate of the Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen is pictured above
It is estimated that 200,000 prisoners passed through Sachsenhausen and that 30,000 people were murdered there, not including Soviet prisoners (pictured: some of the prisoners at the camp)
The case has been referred back to Hanau Regional Court in the German Hesse state for a new decision on Formanek, after judges at the higher court refused to open proceedings against the former SS guard themselves.Â
Formanek had lived undetected for decades in a modest flat near Frankfurt, until reporters tracked him down last year – but the former camp guard remained silent on the allegations against him.Â
Incriminating documents from the Federal Archives and the Stasi Records Archive reveal Formanek’s horrific past.Â
Born in Romania to a German-speaking tailor, Formanek joined the SS on July 4, 1943, and became part of the Sachsenhausen guard battalion in Brandenburg.
One Stasi document chillingly notes that Formanek ‘continued to kill prisoners’.
Holocaust survivor Jurek Szarf, 90, vividly recounted the brutal treatment prisoners endured at Sachsenhausen.
Deported at age ten to Ravensbrueck with his aunt and mother, Jurek was later transferred to Koenigs Wusterhausen and then Sachsenhausen.
His mother starved to death in the Wusterhausen concentration camp in February 1945.
Gregor Formanek’s service as an SS guard is confirmed by a document from the Main Personnel Office of the SS
A file image of the entrance tower of the former concentration camp Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg, Germany
Built in 1936 to house high-ranking political prisoners, Sachsenhausen is the camp where the Nazis perfected killing methods that were scaled up and used to murder millions at larger and more notorious camps such as Auschwitz (pictured: prisoners at Sachsenhausen)
‘I was in the hospital block in Sachsenhausen with my father and my uncle and was supposed to be shot. We waited for hours for the execution, then we were freed,’ Mr Szarf told German newspaper Bild about being freed in April 1945 aged 12.
He was deported to Sachsenhausen from the other concentration camp where he was held just days before he was freed.
Mr Szarf said: ‘The SS drove the prisoners from Sachsenhausen on a long march to escape the approaching Red Army. My father, my uncle and I were too weak to march.Â
‘Two other uncles went with us. One was shot by SS guards, the other was beaten to death.’Â
In his CV, Formanek left out his role as a concentration camp guard, only saying he was ‘called up for military service in Germany, where I spent 20 months’.Â
After reading the CV, Mr Szarf said to Bild: ‘He doesn’t mention Sachsenhausen. The SS guards insulted and beat us in the concentration camps. We weren’t human to them.’
After the war, Formanek was arrested by the Red Army and sentenced by a Soviet military tribunal to 25 years in prison for espionage and crimes against humanity.
Released after ten years, he moved to West Germany and lived quietly as a porter.
The infamous ‘Work Sets You Free’ sign at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp gates, picture on the memorial service in January 2019
A bedroom for inmates at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp site of the Sachsenhausen memorial in Oranienburg, Germany
The local public prosecutor’s office plans to appeal the ruling that Formanek is unfit to stand trial, with a final decision to be made by the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main.
Germany has been scrambling to bring the last surviving former Nazi war criminals to justice since a 2011 landmark ruling paved the way for several trials.
One former death camp guard, John Demjanjuk, was convicted on the basis that he served as part of Hitler’s killing machine, even though there was no proof he had directly killed anyone.
Since then, several former concentration camp workers have been found guilty of being accessories to murder on the same basis.
However, with time running out, many cases have been abandoned in recent years after the accused died or were physically unable to stand trial.
More than 200,000 people, including Jews, Roma, regime opponents and gay people, were detained at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1936 and 1945.
Tens of thousands died there from forced labour, murder, medical experiments, hunger or disease before the camp was liberated by Soviet troops.
