Ninety-Five Year Old Ex-Nazi Medic To Stand Trial For War Crimes

Seventy years ago, the deadliest war in history began. Germany invaded Poland, sparking the Second World War, plunging the world into chaos. The forces of Allied and Axis powers fought an open and bloody war. Behind this fight for world domination lurked an even darker agenda. Adolf Hitler and his gang of Nazis began what is now known as the Holocaust, the organized extermination of Jews.

Hitler rose to power in Germany, promising to restore Germany, and, with this promise, he blamed all of the country’s problems on one group of people: the Jewish. Utilizing all of his country’s resources, he began his campaign of bloodshed. From firing squads to gas chambers, the genocide continued until the end of the war on 2 September 1945.

The Holocaust was the bloodiest war crime ever committed. The Nazi’s systematically killed over 11 million people, 6 million of them Jewish. In Europe alone, two out of three Jews were persecuted and killed, dropping the Jewish population from nine million to just three million.

The liberation of the concentration camps was a long-awaited and joyful event. The war was over, and the Jews and other prisoners had been freed. The war crimes of the Holocaust could not go unpunished. The allies began a campaign to find and prosecute those responsible for these horrific crimes against humanity.

Seventy years later, the prosecution continues to find more and more perpetrators. Now, ninety-five year-old ex-Nazi medic Hubert Zafke has been accused and is expected to stand trial soon. He is accused of being an accessory to approximately 3,681 murders that occurred during his time serving as a Sergeant Medic at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

He served as a medic from 15 August, 1944, to 14 September, 1944. During this one month period, fourteen “shipments,” or trains full of people, arrived at the concentration camp. Unfortunately, one of these trains carried the famous Anne Franke to her death.

Zafke was proclaimed “fit for trial” previously in December but will be reevaluated to see if he is truly fit for trial and traveling. The court proceedings for the ex-medic are set to begin on 29 February 2016 and end sometime during or after March.