A former Nazi medic who allegedly assisted in the mass murder of thousands of prisoners at Auschwitz has been arrested and is now awaiting trial.

German police apprehended the 93-year-old at his home near Neubrandenburg, north of Berlin, after receiving information on his whereabouts from the German office specialising in Nazi war crimes.

He is charged with aiding and abetting murder in September 1944, when 1,721 prisoners who arrived from countries across Europe were killed in Auschwitz’s gas chambers.

The former SS member’s arrest is the latest in Germany’s renewed efforts to round up all surviving Nazi war criminals and bring to justice anyone found to have been complicit with Nazi activity.