The Center for Solving the Crimes of National Socialism (CRPNS) in Ludwigsburg (Germany) has found and began to check the involvement of Wehrmacht soldiers in the murder of Soviet prisoners of war, reports Welt am Sonntag.
According to the publication, seven people were among the suspects: the soldiers were guarding the camps where the massacres of the Red Army were committed. Of the approximately 5.7 million Soviet soldiers who were captured, about 3.3 million died in Nazi camps.
The head of the CRPNS, Thomas Wiel, said that the center’s card file contains information about hundreds of camps and information about the guards who served there. “We were able to identify approximately 2,000 people who, judging by their dates of birth, may be alive to this day,” he added. The names of seven identified suspects have not been disclosed, with a total of 10 cases under investigation in Germany.
In recent years, it has become easier in Germany to prove the guilt of an alleged Nazi criminal. The precedent was set by the proceedings against John (Ivan) Demjanjuk, who was found guilty of aiding the murder of 28 thousand people in 2011. After that, it became possible to initiate proceedings against the former concentration camp guards, even if, due to the lack of witnesses, it was impossible to establish their direct participation in the crime.
In February 2020, the German authorities filed charges against a 95-year-old resident of the city of Pinneberg, who served as the commandant’s secretary and stenographer in the Stutthof concentration camp under the National Socialists. She is suspected of complicity in the murder of 10 thousand people.