Relentless Nazi prosecutions expose historic Jew-hatred still echoed today by modern anti-Israel extremists.
German prosecutors have launched an investigation into a 100-year-old suspected former Nazi camp guard, reinforcing Germany’s commitment to pursue Holocaust perpetrators even eight decades later. Authorities in Dortmund believe the man served at the Hemer prisoner-of-war camp between December 1943 and September 1944, a site where over 100,000 Soviet POWs were held and thousands died from brutality, starvation, and execution.
Prosecutor Andreas Brendel confirmed the probe after the case first surfaced in Bild, underscoring Germany’s renewed determination—sparked by the 2011 conviction of John Demjanjuk—to hold every surviving participant in Nazi atrocities accountable. Demjanjuk’s landmark ruling established that anyone serving in a death camp or killing system was culpable, even without direct evidence of individual murders.
Following that precedent, Germany has successfully prosecuted aging Nazi guards, including:
- Bruno Dey (age 93) – convicted in 2020 of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder at Stutthof.
- A 100-year-old Sachsenhausen guard charged in 2021 for complicity in a camp where 100,000+ were killed.
Still, many suspects evade justice only because they die or become medically unfit before trial—a sobering reminder of how little time remains to close the last chapters of Nazi accountability.
Several recent cases—including a 99-year-old suspect deemed unfit in 2024, and another Sachsenhausen guard who died before trial—reflect the race against time. Yet Germany continues efforts to pursue every living participant in the genocidal machinery that annihilated six million Jews.
This ongoing pursuit of justice stands in stark contrast to today’s rising antisemitism—particularly from anti-Israel extremists who praise terror groups and resurrect the same hateful rhetoric once used to justify Jewish persecution. By prosecuting the last Nazi perpetrators, Germany affirms an essential truth: Jewish lives must never again be dehumanized or abandoned.
