The oldest perpetrator ever tried for Nazi-era crimes has been sentenced by a German court. Neuruppin Region Court, whose session was held in a prison sports hall In Brandenburg an der Havel, sentenced former SS guard Josef Schuetz, 101, to a maximum sentence of 5 years for his part in the murders of over 3,500 inmates at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Lithuanian-born Schuetz worked as a Rottenfuehrer - the highest rank in the SS.

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Plaintiff attorney Thomas Walther speaks to reporters after the verdict has been read at the sentencing hearing of the trial of former Nazi concentration camp guard Josef Schuetz (not pictured) on June 28, 2022 at a gym used as a makeshift courtroom in Brandenburg an der Havel, eastern Germany, where his verdict was spoken. - The court gave its verdict in the trial of the 101-year-old man, the oldest person so far to be charged with complicity in war crimes during the Holocaust. (Photo by Adam BERRY / AFP) (Photo by ADAM BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)

At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, 20,000 of its 200,000 prisoners including Jews and other enemies of the Reich, were murdered in cold blood by the SS.

This was either via being shot at a ‘neck shot facility’, injected with poison or from disease, malnutrition or exhaustion, or on a ‘death march’.

Schuetz now has one week to appeal his sentence by taking it to the Supreme Court.
However it will take this court several months to arrange a hearing.
This means that Schuetz is very unlikely to serve any time in prison until at least 12 months have passed.