Gregor Formanek, 99, stands accused of aiding in the murder of 3,300 individuals at the infamous WW2 prison Sachsenhausen, notorious for its gas chambers, gruesome medical experiments, and executions, which served as a model for Auschwitz, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Originally from the Main-Kinzig district in Hesse, Germany, Formanek was scheduled to face trial for his involvement in these killings. However, a court has declared him unfit to stand trial based on an expert assessment. The expert cited Formanek's advanced age and purported poor health condition, according to local media reports.
The chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed outrage and disappointment over the decision not to proceed with Formanek's trial. He emphasized that a perpetrator's age does not absolve their guilt and pointed out that Formanek has enjoyed a long life, a luxury he denied to his innocent victims.
For decades, Formanek lived undetected in a modest apartment near Frankfurt until reporters located him last year. Despite being confronted with allegations, the former camp guard remained silent. Documents from the Federal Archives and the Stasi Records Archive expose Formanek's horrific past.
Formanek was born in Romania to a German-speaking tailor, and joined the SS on July 4, 1943, becoming part of the Sachsenhausen guard battalion in Brandenburg.
Holocaust survivor Jurek Szarf, 90, vividly recalled the brutal treatment endured by prisoners at Sachsenhausen. Szarf, whose mother starved to death at Wusterhausen concentration camp in February 1945, was freed with his father and uncle when he was 12 years old.
After the war, Formanek was arrested by the Red Army and sentenced by a Soviet military tribunal to 25 years in prison for espionage and crimes against humanity. He was released after ten years and moved to West Germany, where he lived quietly as a porter.
The local public prosecutor's office plans to appeal the ruling that deemed Formanek unfit to stand trial, with the final decision to be made by the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main.
