BERLIN — In a final quest to bring Holocaust participants to justice, German authorities have reopened hundreds of dormant investigations of Nazi death camp guards — men who are now so old that time has become “the enemy” for prosecutors hurrying to prepare cases.
The efforts could result in new prosecutions nearly seven decades after World War II.
Special Nazi war-crimes investigators reopened the files after the conviction of former U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk, whose case set a new legal precedent in Germany. It was the first time prosecutors had been able to convict someone in a Nazi-era case without direct evidence that the suspect participated in a specific killing.
Now authorities are weighing whether the same approach could be used to pursue others, said Kurt Schrimm, the prosecutor who heads the investigation unit.
Given the advanced age of the suspects, investigators are not waiting until Demjanjuk’s appeals are decided.
“We don’t want to wait too long, so we’ve already begun our investigations,” Schrimm said.