Dortmund prosecutors opened a formal investigation in March into a 105-year-old man suspected of being an accessory to murder on multiple counts. He is alleged to have served as a guard at Stalag 326 during World War II.
Stalag 326, near Bielefeld, mainly received Soviet prisoners of war before redistributing them for forced labour. Historians say more than 300,000 POWs passed through between 1941 and 1945; tens of thousands died amid hunger, disease and catastrophic living conditions.
The case was initiated by the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg and referred to Dortmund. That office gathers evidence of Nazi crimes and prepares investigations against suspected perpetrators; Dortmund is North Rhine-Westphalia’s central office for prosecuting Nazi crimes.
