“I will never forget that I was always hungry, day and night.” Dora Roth and her mother were two of roughly 120,000 people brutally interred at the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig. At least 65,000 of them died there. One of those who perished was Dora Roth’s mother. She starved to death because she gave her bread rations to her young daughter.
But prisoners at Stutthof did not only die of starvation. They also died of exhaustion from forced labour, from illness and exposure, were shot, or were exterminated in the camp’s gas chambers. They were guarded by men in the camp’s 25 watch towers. From there, sentries had a clear view of every part of the camp.
They also saw the smoke bellowing from the chimneys of Stutthof’s crematorium. Was it possible that guards didn’t notice that smoke? Or do they bear partial responsibility for their support of the industrial-scale killing that Nazi Germany perpetrated there?
‘Cog in the murderous machinery’
Bruno D., 17 years old at the time, is said to have regularly climbed up into those towers for guard duty between the summer of 1944 and the spring of 1945. State prosecutors say that as an SS sharpshooter he not only guarded but also murdered prisoners at the camp. Now, 74 years after the camp was liberated, he will stand trial in the Hamburg State Court. He faces 5,230 counts of accessory to murder.
Entrance to the gas chamber, Stutthof concentration camp, Sztutowa, Poland. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
As he was a minor at the time, a juvenile jury court now will seek to determine whether he not only kept people from fleeing the camp, but was also involved in putting down revolts and thwarting the liberation of prisoners. State prosecutors are convinced that he “knowingly assisted in the insidious and gruesome killing of mainly Jewish prisoners,” making him a “cog in the murderous machinery” and one who also “carried out execution orders.”
The decisive question will be whether or not the 93-year-old knew of the murders being carried out in the camp. Bruno D. claims he did not. Last year, he submitted to repeated questioning from state prosecutors who say he cooperated with investigative authorities. He did not deny he was a guard at the Stutthof concentration camp, but argues that he is not guilty of the charges he faces. He says he was in no way an accomplice to murder.
The case is proceeding under difficult circumstances. First, the court must determine whether Bruno D. is healthy enough to stand trial. A number of experts have determined that he is only partially capable of participating. Thus, it remains an open question as to whether his health will remain stable and therefore whether a verdict can even be reached.
More trials against concentration camp personnel
Unlike in previous decades, it’s no longer necessary in Germany for prosecutors to prove someone’s direct involvement in individual murders in order to obtain a conviction for Nazi crimes. Charges can also be brought against individuals for being an accessory to murder.
The trial of Bruno D. is just one of many over the past 10 years in which guards, bureaucrats and others working with the Nazis have had to answer for their past actions. In 2011, John Demjanjuk, a former guard at the Sobibor extermination camp, was sentenced to five years in prison. Another guard from the Stutthof concentration camp was charged with accessory to murder in 2018, but the proceedings were suspended after the 95-year-old defendant was deemed permantly unfit to stand trial.
The proceedings against the wheelchair-bound 95-year old German on trial for Nazi crimes were ended after he was deemed permanently unfit to stand trial. Photo: Reuters
According to Thomas Will, deputy director of the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, some 23 cases against concentration camp personnel are currently ongoing.
For many survivors, it is not only important to bring such people to trial, but also to keep alive the memory of what happened under the Nazis. After her camp was liberated, Dora Roth, for instance, dedicated her life to explaining just what happened there. Since that time, she has spoken to countless people, especially children, about her horrific experiences at the Stutthof camp.
“What they did to us was unfathomable. And those who know what went on have an obligation to tell others. That is the only way we can prevent another Holocaust.”
This article was originally published on DW.
Editor’s note: Deutsche Welle follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.