The suspect is alleged to have worked as a camp guard at Stalag 326 VI K in Senne, north-western Germany, which was one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps in the country.
Dortmund public prosecutor Sonja Frodermann said a similar investigation had been opened against another former guard at the camp, but the suspect died a few months ago at the age of 99.
No further details about the two former guards have been released.
Stalag 326 held between 180,000 and 200,000 Soviet prisoners of war, many of whom died from horrific living conditions, mistreatment and malnutrition. Prisoners from France, Poland, Serbia and Belgium were also held at the camp.
According to the camp’s memorial site, one in three Soviet prisoners of war who entered Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945 passed through Senne, with many later forced to work in the surrounding region.
The prosecutor said the investigation into the 105-year-old remains ongoing and relates to allegations that he was an accessory to multiple murders linked to his activities at the camp.
Germany abolished the statute of limitations for murder and accessory to murder in 1979, allowing Nazi-era crimes to continue to be prosecuted decades after the end of World War II.
The investigations come as German authorities face increasing difficulties in pursuing Nazi-era crimes, with most potential suspects now dead or extremely elderly.
Four years ago, 101-year-old former concentration camp guard Josef Schütz was sentenced to five years in prison for complicity in murder at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He never served the sentence and died in 2023 while appealing his conviction.
A former Nazi concentration camp secretary was also convicted in 2022 of aiding and abetting murder and received a suspended sentence. She died last year at the age of 99.
Cases involving Nazi crimes are handled by public prosecutors in Dortmund, while investigations are initially conducted by Germany’s Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg.
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