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| Germany arrests 'former Auschwitz guard' Hans Lipschis | Germany arrests 'former Auschwitz guard' Hans Lipschis |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Auschwitz extermination camp has been arrested in southern Germany. | A 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Auschwitz extermination camp has been arrested in southern Germany. |
| Hans Lipschis was taken into custody in Aalen after prosecutors concluded there was "compelling evidence" that he had been complicit in murder. | Hans Lipschis was taken into custody in Aalen after prosecutors concluded there was "compelling evidence" that he had been complicit in murder. |
| Mr Lipschis acknowledges he served with the Waffen SS at the camp in occupied Poland, but claims he was only a cook. | Mr Lipschis acknowledges he served with the Waffen SS at the camp in occupied Poland, but claims he was only a cook. |
| Last month, the Simon Wiesenthal Center named him as number four on its list of most-wanted Nazis. | |
| The organisation accused him of participating in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews, at Auschwitz between October 1941 and 1945. | The organisation accused him of participating in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews, at Auschwitz between October 1941 and 1945. |
| "This is a very positive step, we welcome the arrest, I hope this will only be the first of many arrests, trials and convictions of death camp guards," the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Efraim Zuroff told AFP news agency. | |
| Mr Lipschis is the first person arrested as a result of a series of new investigations launched by the German authorities into some 50 former Auschwitz guards who are still alive. | Mr Lipschis is the first person arrested as a result of a series of new investigations launched by the German authorities into some 50 former Auschwitz guards who are still alive. |
| His house was searched by police and he was then brought before a judge and remanded in custody. | |
| An indictment against him is currently being prepared, according to the Stuttgart prosecutor's office. | |
| Demjanjuk precedent | |
| Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi extermination camp, where more than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered. | |
| Prosecutors have pointed to a re-interpretation of criminal law after the conviction of John Demjanjuk in May 2011. | |
| Demjanjuk was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews while he was a guard at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. | |
| His case means that potential defendants might no longer be able to hide behind the argument, in court, that they were simply following orders. | |
| Mr Lipschis' wartime identification papers prove he belonged to an SS company deployed as guards in Auschwitz. He was reportedly granted "ethnic German" status by the Nazis. | |
| He has told neighbours and reporters he worked only as a cook and saw nothing of the gas chambers and crematoria. | |
| One German newspaper has previously reported that Mr Lipschis, who was born in what is now Lithuania in 1919, finished World War II fighting for Germany on the eastern front. | |
| He moved to Chicago in the US in 1956, where he lived until 1983, when he was expelled for having concealed his Nazi past. | |
| At the time it could not be proved that he was personally responsible for any killings. | |
| He returned to Germany and his whereabouts, in Aalen, have apparently always been known to the authorities. |