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Alleged Nazi guard arrested

May 6, 2013

Police in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg have arrested a former guard at the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz. The 93-year-old is suspected of acting as accessory to murder from autumn 1941 to 1945.

https://p.dw.com/p/18T9N
Entrance to Auschwitz with the sign "Arbeit macht Frei," or "Work will free you"
Image: Jan Schulte

The suspect was remanded in custody on Monday following a search of his home, a spokesman for prosecutors in Baden-Württemberg's state capital Stuttgart reported.

No charges have yet formally been brought against him, the spokesman said, while prosecutors try to "firmly and promptly establish precisely what he did in Auschwitz."

The spokesman added, however, that there was "compelling evidence" to suggest he acted as an accessory to murder at the notorious Nazi concentration camp.

The suspect, who has not been named, allegedly worked as a guard at the camp from autumn 1941 until it was liberated by allied troops in spring 1945.

Prosecutors said a doctor had confirmed that despite the suspect's age, his health was strong enough for him to remain in detention.

The 93-year-old man reportedly fled to the United States after the war, but was deported in 1983 when his Nazi past came to light. He had most recently been living the town of Aalen, roughly 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of Stuttgart.

Around 1.5 million people, most of them Jews, were killed in Auschwitz between 1940 and 195.

ccp/pfd (AFP, AP, dpa)