Suspects arrested aged 88, 92 and 94 • Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel Office director: Considering the age of the suspects, every effort must be made to ensure they stand trial quickly • Arrests are part of countrywide crackdown on former SS guards.

German police arrested three men Thursday suspected of having participated in the murder of Jews at Auschwitz concentration camp, while serving there as SS guards.

The arrest was made as part of a series of home raids across three German states, searching for former Nazis suspected of murder, The Guardian reported.

According to the report, the three men arrested are aged 88, 92 and 94, and are suspected of having served as guards at Auschwitz from 1942 to 1944.

The crackdown on concentration camp guards comes following the landmark 2011 ruling sentencing a former Nazi guard at Sobibor camp, John Demjanjuk, to five years in prison for complicity in the murder of Jews at the camp. Demjanjuk died two years ago, while waiting for his case to be appealed.

Prior to the ruling on his case, Nazi war criminals were only prosecuted if there was evidence showing that they had personally carried out the murders.

"This is a significant undertaking," said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office. "Considering the age of the suspects, every effort must be made to ensure they stand trial quickly."

israelhayom.com