German prosecutors indict former Auschwitz guard, 94

BERLIN – German prosecutors say they’ve charged a 94-year-old former SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp as an accessory to murder.

Prosecutors in Stuttgart said Monday the suspect, a German national born in Serbia whom they didn’t identify by name, was charged as a juvenile because he was 19 at the time of the alleged offences.

They say he served as a guard at Auschwitz in late 1942 and early 1943 and estimate that 13,335 people were sent to the gas chambers during that time. According to prosecutors, the suspect has said via his lawyer that he wasn’t aware of the background and aims of what was happening, or of details of the killings.

The suspect has been charged on the premise that, as a guard, he helped the camp function.