German prosecutors: Former Auschwitz guard fit for trial

Frankfurt prosecutors say a 92-year-old former Auschwitz death camp guard charged as an accessory to murder is fit for trial, but it's not yet clear when proceedings might begin.

Prosecutor Friderike Busch told reporters Thursday that the man, whose name wasn't released in line with privacy laws, is accused of being an accessory to the deaths of 1,075 people from Berlin, France and the Netherlands killed in Auschwitz while he was a guard there from 1942 to 1943. The Hungarian-born ethnic German volunteered for the SS in 1942 and rose to the rank of Sturmmann, roughly equivalent to a specialist. He's accused because as a guard he helped the camp function. That same reasoning won the conviction Wednesday of a former SS sergeant who also served at Auschwitz.