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Auschwitz radio operator ruled unfit to stand trial | Auschwitz radio operator ruled unfit to stand trial |
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A 92-year-old woman who worked as a radio operator at Auschwitz has been ruled unfit to stand trial on charges that she was an accessory to the murder of 260,000 at the Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland. | |
A court in Kiel, northern Germany, said on Friday that the woman, identified only as Helma M, was almost blind and deaf, and that a serious illness this year had left her physically, mentally and emotionally unfit to be put on trial. | A court in Kiel, northern Germany, said on Friday that the woman, identified only as Helma M, was almost blind and deaf, and that a serious illness this year had left her physically, mentally and emotionally unfit to be put on trial. |
A spokeswoman for the court said judges had ruled the woman “did not fulfil the basic conditions to take part in an enduring trial”. | A spokeswoman for the court said judges had ruled the woman “did not fulfil the basic conditions to take part in an enduring trial”. |
Germany has been holding trials of suspects of Nazi crimes, using accessory to murder charges to convict John Demjanjuk, a Sobibor death camp guard, in 2011, and 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning this year. | Germany has been holding trials of suspects of Nazi crimes, using accessory to murder charges to convict John Demjanjuk, a Sobibor death camp guard, in 2011, and 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard Reinhold Hanning this year. |
In June a German court sentenced Hanning to five years in prison after it branded him a “willing and efficient henchman” in the Holocaust and convicted him of being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people. | In June a German court sentenced Hanning to five years in prison after it branded him a “willing and efficient henchman” in the Holocaust and convicted him of being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people. |
The trials are likely to be Germany’s last linked to the Holocaust, when the Nazis killed more than 6 million people, mostly Jews. | The trials are likely to be Germany’s last linked to the Holocaust, when the Nazis killed more than 6 million people, mostly Jews. |
• This article was amended on 12 September 2016 to clarify that the Auschwitz concentration camp was in German-occupied Poland. |