Auschwitz Guard Arrest: 93-Year-Old Hans Lipschis Taken Into Custody For Murderous Role At Notorious Concentration Camp

On Monday, German police arrested 93-year-old Hans Lipschis, a former guard at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

According to Reuters, "prosecutors in the southwestern city of Stuttgart arrested a 93-year-year-old former Auschwitz guard with the strong suspicion he was involved in murder there. The original police report obtained by Reuters did not name the former Auschwitz guard after his arrest.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), is a website dedicated to "keeping alive the memory of the victims of the Shoah, combatting Holocaust denial, educating the world about the Holocaust and holding Nazi war criminals accountable."

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israel office for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, wrote in an email to Reuters Zuroff:

"The arrest of Lipschis is a welcome first step in what we hope will be a large number of successful legal measures taken by the German judicial authorities against death camp personnel and those who served in the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units)."

NBC News reports that as an Auschwitz guard, Lipschis worked as part of the camp's extermination unit from 1941 "until its liberation in early 1945."

According to the BBC, Lipschis says he did serve at Auschwitz but was just a cook. Reports say that prosecutors searched the home of the former Auschwitz guard, and during the search found "compelling evidence" he was a part of the murders that took place on site.

The SWC listed Lipschis as its number four most wanted Nazi war criminal. The bio listed next to Lipschis' name says he was a member of the "Birkenau death camp where he participated in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews."

The bio goes on to say Lipschis "escaped to the United States after World War II, but was deported...to Germany in April 1983."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has a list of its top 10 most wanted Nazi criminals, some of whom live in the United States and Canada.

Charges against the former Auschwitz guard are still pending. The last Nazi to be convicted on charges of murder at Auschwitz was John Demjanjuk. According to the New York Times, after WWII Demjanjuk came to the United States and began a new life. He got a job, became a citizen and had a family.

In 2011, Demjanjuk was tried and convicted for his role in the murders that occurred at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Demjanjuk died in March 2012 at the age of 91.