SS guard Josef Schütz, convicted last June for crimes committed during the Holocaust at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany during World War II, has died at the age of 102.

Known as the oldest person convicted of crimes committed during the Holocaust, Schutz was tried for helping to kill more than 3,500 prisoners at Sachsenhausen, near Berlin, between 1942 and 1945.

Schutz, who has always denied being a security guard at Sachsenhausen, was sentenced to five years in prison last year. However, he remained at large pending his appeal in the German Federal Court.

Schutz, whose name and birth details were found in the documents of an SS guard, denied being an SS guard and claimed to have been working on a farm near the town of Passewald at the time.

During the trial, Schutz told a German court, “I don’t know why I’m sitting here. I really have nothing to do with it.”

Tens of thousands of people died in Sachsenhausen during World War II from starvation, forced labor, medical experiments, and SS assassinations.

More than 200,000 people were imprisoned there, including political prisoners, as well as Jews, Roma and Sindi (Gypsies).

Source: BBC