92-year-old former Nazi to stand trial in Germany

92-year-old former Nazi to stand trial in Germany
Julie Deisher at 8:39 AM ET

[JURIST] Germany's Hagen State Court [official website, in German] will require 92-year-old Siert Bruins, a former member of the Nazi Waffen SS [USHMM backgrounder] to go on trial in September. Last November, Bruins was charged for the murder [JURIST report] of resistance fighter Aldert Klaas Dijkema in 1944. Bruins and his suspected accomplice August Neuhaeuser, who has since died, are alleged [ShortNews report, in German] to have driven Dijkema to a secluded place and shot him at least four times while he attempted to flee. Bruins, who was born Dutch but is now a German citizen, was sentenced to prison in the 1980s for the murder of two Dutch Jews during the Second World War. Despite the ages of the accused, authorities have continued to arrest individuals charged with war crimes during the Holocaust. Last month Hungarian prosecutors charged [JURIST report] Laszlo Csatary, a 98-year-old Hungarian man, with the unlawful execution and torture of people in connection with the Holocaust. In May German authorities arrested [JURIST report] a 93-year-old man for allegedly serving as a guard at Auschwitz and assisting in the mass murder carried out at the death camp. German prosecutors have reopened [JURIST report] hundreds of investigations involving former death camp guards after the conviction [JURIST report] of John Demjanjuk [NNDB profile; JURIST news archive] in May 2011 for the murder of thousands during the Holocaust. Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years in prison but was released early due to old age and died in September 2011 while awaiting an appeal [JURIST report].