German prosecutors are investigating a 105-year-old former Wehrmacht guard over alleged complicity in the mass murder of Allied prisoners of war at Stalag 326 VI K Senne. The case matters because it shows Germany continues to pursue suspected Nazi crimes decades later, despite the suspects’ advanced age.

More than 300,000 prisoners, mainly Soviet troops, passed through the camp, where many suffered starvation, disease, violence, forced labour and terrible sanitation; estimates suggest 15,000 to 70,000 died. The camp was liberated by US forces on 2 April 1945, and the investigation was referred to Dortmund prosecutors in February; prosecution remains legally possible because murder has no limitation period, although any trial would depend on the suspect’s medical fitness.