An SS death camp guard dubbed the last Nazi should stand trial accused of murdering 3,300 Holocaust victims, high court judges have ruled.
Gregor Formanek, now 100, had successfully appealed a decision to put him on trial for the “cruel and treacherous killing” of victims at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
The Hanau Regional Court had last May excused him from prosecution based on medical evidence declaring that he had a “permanent incapacity to stand trial”.
But now the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court has overturned the decision and sent the case back to Hanau for another hearing, reports local media.
The verdict means that Formanek is likely to face justice early in 2025.
News of the verdict emerged afterthe plaintiff’s attorneys revealed the decision taken six weeks ago by the higher court judges.
Attorney Hans-Jurgen Forster revealed: “With a decision dated October 22nd, the 7th Criminal Senate of the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court, following an immediate appeal by myself and the public prosecutor’s office, overturned the decision of the 2nd Grand Criminal Division of the Hanau Regional Court dated May 6th, 2024, which had rejected the opening of the main proceedings due to the accused F.’s permanent incapacity to stand trial.”
The higher court, however, rejected a bid by prosecutors and plaintiffs for the case to be tried there instead.
Formanek, born in Romania, was the son of a German-speaking master tailor and joined the SS in July 1943 as a member of the notorious Sachsenhausen battalion.
Set up in 1936, the camp was seen as a model training ground for Hitler’s mass extermination of Jews.
More than 200,000 prisoners passed through Sachsenhausen, notorious for its gas chambers and horrifying medical experiments.
One damning document from the Main Personnel Office of the SS has confirmed Formanek’s chilling past.
And an East German Stasi secret police document tells how he “continually killed prisoners.”
Other evidence is said to show how he “supported the cruel and insidious killing of thousands of prisoners”.
At the end of the war, Formanek was captured by Russia’s Red Army and spent just ten years behind bars before being released to find work as a porter.
In later life, Formanek lived in comfort with his wife in a GBP 400,000 apartment near Frankfurt.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Clive Goodman, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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