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German court rules 97-year-old suspected Nazi guard is too sick to stand trial

He is accused of participating in a mass shooting by the SS when it killed at least 17,000 people were killed in ditches outside the Majdanek death camp

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A German court has decided not to try a 97-year-old former Nazi guard, on the grounds of ill-health.

The suspect is accused of participating in Operation Erntefest, a mass shooting action carried out by the Nazis on November 3, 1943. 

At least 17,000 Jewish prisoners from Majdanek death camp and others were shot in ditches outside the camp.

The man, who has not been named, is believed to have worked at Majdanek, but the Frankfurt state court ruled on Thursday he is too sick to face court proceedings.

They cited a medical assessment of the 97-year-old, which had been repeatedly delayed by stays in hospital.

The suspect was charged in 2017 for allegedly serving at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland between August 1943 and January 1944.

According to the prosecution he was aware that the people he was guarding would be murdered.

In 2017, a former Auschwitz guard, 96, was deemed healthy enough to serve a four-year prison sentence.

Oskar Groening, known as the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz” for his role in sorting through the belongings of the death camp victims, was found guilty in 2015 of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people.

Despite being sentenced to prison, he had been living at home while appeals were lodged.

Oskar Groening was convicted in 2015 of being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people at the notorious death camp.

However, the superior regional court in Celle, north Germany ruled that Groening was healthy enough to go to jail, as long as he received nursing and medical care while incarcerated.

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