Josef Schuetz (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: Schütz, born 16 November 1920) known in the German press as Josef S., is a Lithuanian-born German former Nazi concentration camp guard who was stationed at the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

. In June 2022, at the age of 101, Schuetz was handed a five year sentence after a criminal trial for complicity in war crimes during the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, becoming the oldest person tried and convicted for Nazi war crimes in Germany.

Biography

Josef Schütz was born in

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

on 16 November 1920. By 1942, he was working in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where one of his duties was being stationed in the watchtower. During Schuetz's tenure at the camp, there were three camp commandants under whom Schuetz worked:

Hans Loritz Hans Loritz (12 December 1895, Augsburg – 31 January 1946, Neumünster) was an officer in the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) who was the commandant of several concentration camps in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe. He committed suicide in captivity ...

(1942),

Albert Sauer Albert Sauer (17 August 1898, Misdroy – 3 May 1945, Falkensee) was a German commandant of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Life Sauer, a carpenter by trade, became a member of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) and the SS in 1931. After a period of ...

(1942–1943), and

Anton Kaindl Anton Kaindl (14 July 1902 – 31 August 1948) was an SS-'' Standartenführer'' and commandant of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from 1943-1945. Kaindl joined the army during the Weimar Republic in May 1920 and served until May 1932, lea ...

(1943–1945). Schuetz remained at the camp until the end of the war in 1945. After the war, he was released as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

in 1947, after which he moved to

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

where he worked as a locksmith. He was at one point married, but in 1986 became a

widower A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

. By 2021, he lived in the northeast state of Brandenburg, Germany.

Trial and conviction

The trial opened on 7 October 2021, when Schuetz was 100, in the

Neuruppin Neuruppin (; North Brandenburgisch: ''Reppin'') is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of Ostprignitz-Ruppin district. It is the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) and therefore also referred to as ''Fonta ...

Regional Court in Brandenburg, during which he was charged with 3,518 counts of being an

accessory to murder Accessory may refer to: * Accessory (legal term), a person who assists a criminal In anatomy * Accessory bone * Accessory muscle * Accessory nucleus, in anatomy, a cranial nerve nucleus * Accessory nerve In arts and entertainment * Accessor ...

. The 17 co-plaintiffs were represented by Thomas Walther, who had previously won a conviction against former Ukrainian-American Waffen-SS guard

John Demjanjuk John Demjanjuk (born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk; uk, Іван Миколайович Дем'янюк; 3 April 1920 – 17 March 2012) was a Ukrainian-American who served as a Trawniki man and Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, M ...

a decade earlier in 2011. Schuetz was represented by Stefan Waterkamp. While Schuetz has been identified internationally, during and after the trial he is known in Germany only by his first name and last initial due to that country's privacy laws. He pleaded not guilty. During the trial, Schuetz stated he did "absolutely nothing" wrong and was not aware of the atrocities happening at Sachsenhausen. Instead, he stated he worked as a "farm laborer near Pasewalk in northeastern Germany during the period in question", a claim which the court rejected. The court used historical documents to prove he worked at the camp and was a non-commissioned officer in the

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

. Testimonies of survivors were also heard, including from Leon Schwarzbaum, who showed a picture of his family who had died in the camp. Schuetz was sentenced to five years in prison for the crimes; when he arrived in court in a wheelchair to hear the verdict on June 28, 2022, he hid his face from the press with a folder to avoid being recognized. During the verdict reading, Judge Udo Lechtermann stated, "You willingly supported this mass extermination with your activity." The timeframe for appeal is within one week of the verdict. He is the oldest person to be tried and convicted for Nazi-era war crimes in Germany. Because of Schuetz's health and advanced age, he is unlikely to serve any prison time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schuetz, Josef 1920 births Living people Lithuanian centenarians Lithuanian expatriates in Germany Lithuanian collaborators with Nazi Germany Lithuanian prisoners of war German centenarians German prisoners of war Locksmiths Nazis convicted of war crimes Sachsenhausen concentration camp personnel Place of birth missing (living people)