Possibile New War Crimes Trial
The trial of John Demjanjuk in Munich may not be Germany's last major war crimes prosecution. Authorities are investigating Samuel K., 88, a retired German civil servant accused of being a death camp guard in World War II and of helping to kill at least 430,000 Jews, reports Spiegel Online. Germany may stage a further spectacular Holocaust trial in addition to the one currently taking place in Munich against alleged SS helper John Demjanjuk. Samuel K., a former member of staff in the West German Ministry for Regional and City Planning, was born in 1921 in the Soviet Union, and entered German service in the summer of 1941 when he was a Soviet prisoner of war. He received German citizenship three years later. K. has appeared as a witness in several other cases but has until now never become the focus of an investigation himself. His name resurfaced during preparations for the Demjanjuk trial and he was questioned last year by officers from the Bavarian police.