Josef Schuetz, a 101-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard, was sentenced to five years in prison by a German court on Tuesday. 

According to Al Jazeera, Schuetz is the oldest individual so far to be put on trial for Nazi war crimes committed during the Holocaust.

He was found guilty of over 3,500 counts of accessory to murder when he worked as a prison guard between 1942 and 1945 at the Sachsenhausen camp, which was located in Oranienburg, a town that lies towards the north of Berlin.

Schuetz on Tuesday pleaded not guilty and said that he did “absolutely nothing” and was unaware of the crimes that were taking place at the camp.

“I don’t know why I am here,” he said.

However, prosecutors argued that he “knowingly and willingly” took part in the killings of 3,518 prisoners at the camp.

In the trial, which began in October 2021, Schuetz claimed that he was working as a farm laborer on the outskirts of the German town of Pasewalk during the Holocaust. 

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While he has been convicted, it is extremely unlikely that he will be put behind bars, considering his age.

Josef Schuetz was born on November 16, 1921, in Lithuania. He began working as a guard at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1942. He was stationed in the camp’s watchtower, where he continued to work until the war ended in 1945. 

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In 1947, he was released as a prisoner of war. Later on, he relocated to the eastern part of Germany where he earned a living as a locksmith.

He was married until his wife died in 1986. In 2021, he lived in Brandenburg, a northeastern state in Germany.