Munich - An 89-year-old former Nazi SS concentration camp guard went on trial in Germany yesterday on charges of murdering prisoners in cold blood during the second World War. Due to his advanced age, Mr Anton Malloth, a butcher by trade, is being tried at Munich's Stadelheim prison and was brought into the provisional courtroom in a wheelchair. Three doctors had previously declared him fit for trial.
Mr Malloth, alleged to have been an overseer in charge of the Gestapo's Theresienstadt prison camp in then Czechoslovakia, faces one charge of attempted murder and three of murder for crimes dating from 1943-1945.
The accused, who has been held in custody since May last year, has at turns denied and refused to respond to the charges.