The 100-year-old Josef S. told a court in eastern Germany on Friday that he was not guilty of assisting in the murder of 3,518 prisoners at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin between 1942 and 1945.

"I am innocent," the defendant declared, saying he "knew nothing" about what happened there and "did absolutely nothing."

He is accused of knowingly aiding and abetting the "execution by firing squad of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942" and the murder of prisoners "using the poisonous gas Zyklon B."

His defense team has not disputed that he was a guard at the camp, but his testimony has focused on his personal life. Josef S. has described himself as a loving husband, father, and grandfather.

More than 200,000 people were detained in Sachsenhausen, among them Jews, Roma and Sinti, gay men and political opponents of the regime. Tens of thousands died from hunger, forced labor, medical experiments, disease, and executions.

Race against time

A 2011 case against an aging Nazi camp guard set a legal precedent that started a race against time to bring anyone still living who was part of Adolf Hitler's killing machine to justice. Previously, to secure a trial let alone a conviction, prosecutors had to demonstrate reason to believe an alleged former Nazi war criminal had actively participated in killings themselves.

Among those convicted have been Oskar Gröning, an accountant at Auschwitz, and Reinhold Hanning, a former SS guard at Auschwitz.

A separate trial of a former Nazi recently made headlines when the woman, a 96-year-old who had worked as a secretary at a concentration camp, tried to flee instead of going to court in the northern city of Itzehoe. She was later apprehended.

Meanwhile, a 96-year-old man who was being investigated for aiding and abetting murder at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Bavaria has died. A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Weiden said on Friday that the man had died in September and was likely the last suspected SS guard from the camp who would face investigation.  

If convicted, Josef S. risks little chance of being put behind bars because of his advanced age.

es/msh (AFP, epd)

In accordance with German press code guidelines, DW typically does not publish the last names of defendants before conviction.