A German court has sentenced a 101-year-old Nazi prison guard to five years in prison.
Joseph Schweitz is the oldest person ever convicted of war crimes in the Holocaust.
He was convicted of aiding and abetting the killing of 3,500 people between 1942 and 1945 and working as a prison guard at the Sachsenhausen Prison.
Given his age, it doesn’t look like he could be imprisoned.
Joseph Schweitz has said he did nothing wrong and never worked in a prison. “I don’t know why I’m here,” he said.
However, the judge said he believed Joseph Schweitz had worked in the penitentiary and supported the “cruelty” there. “For three years you watched the prisoners being tortured and killed.”
“Your duty was on the tower of the penitentiary,” the judge said. Anyone who tried to escape from the camp was killed, and every guard was involved. “
From 1935 to 1945, more than 200,000 Jews and anti-government activists were held in the Sachsenhausen Penitentiary.
Thousands died of forced labor, murder, medical experiments, starvation or disease.
Joseph Schweitz’s lawyer says he will appeal the decision.