A Stuttgart Public Prosecutor brought charges[press release, in German] Monday in a district court in Mannheim against a 94-year-old former Schutzstaffel (SS) guard of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp for aiding and abetting the murders committed in the camp.

The man, whose identity has not been released, was an SS Schütze, or Private, in the camp that was both a concentration labor camp and an extermination camp. The man was 19 years old when he served at the camp beginning at the latest in December of 1942 continuing to January of 1943. During his period of service, the prosecution estimates that at least 15 rail transports arrived in the camp with at least 13,335 people being classified as unable to work who were murdered in the gas chambers.

The former SS guard responded to these allegations by saying that he was unaware of the background, purpose, and process of the killings that occurred. The Mannheim court will have to decide whether the case will go to trial. If the case does proceed, since the accused was 19 years old at the time of the crime, he will be charged as a young adult under the Youth Courts Law [text] or Juvenile Court Act (Jugendgerichtsgesetz (JGG) [text, in German]) rather than as an adult.