Former Nazi concentration camp guard Josef Schuetz hides his face behind a folder as he arrives on June 28, 2022. Photo: ADAM BERRY/AFP via Getty Images
A 101-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the Holocaust, making him the oldest Nazi war criminal to be convicted. Josef Schuetz, a World War II guard at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, was convicted by a German court for being complicit in the murder of 3,518 prisoners. The camp, which was open from 1936 until the end of the war, was home to around 200,000 prisoners. Schuetz was 21 years old when he started work at Sachsenhausen, where tens of thousands of people were killed by the Nazis, including Jews and Roma. He was accused of being complicit in the use of poisonous gas Zyklon-B to kill inmates as well as the “execution by firing squad of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942.”Schuetz maintained his innocence throughout the trial, claiming he was unaware of the crimes committed inside the concentration camp. Due to his age, Scheutz is unlikely to spend any time in prison. He is also expected to appeal the conviction.