BERLIN (AP)
— A former SS sergeant who worked unnoticed for
decades as a train-station manager was charged
with 58 counts of murder Tuesday after a student
doing undergraduate research uncovered his alleged
involvement in a massacre of Jewish forced laborers.
University of Vienna student Andreas Forster was working on a project about the
slaying in a forest near the Austrian village
of Deutsch Schuetzen when he stumbled across
Adolf Storms' name in witness testimony.
Forster then
obtained files from federal archives in Berlin
that enabled him to link the former sergeant
to the massacre, his professor Walter Manoschek
told The Associated Press.
Manoschek
visited Storms, 90, at his home in the city of
Duisburg several times last year after finding
him in the phone book. The professor conducted
about 12 hours of interviews in which Storms
repeatedly said that he does not remember the
killings.
Forster and
Manoschek notified authorities and state prosecutors
near Storms' hometown in the industrial Ruhrgebiet
region of western Germany filed the charges against
him Tuesday.
Storms and
unidentified accomplices are accused of forcing
at least 57 of the Jewish laborers to hand over
their valuables and kneel by a grave before fatally
shooting them from behind.
A day after
the March 29, 1945 massacre, Storms is accused
of shooting another Jew who could no longer walk
during a forced march in Austria from Deutsch
Schuetzen to the village of Hartberg, according
to the court.
The court
described the suspect simply as a "retiree from Duisburg," but German authorities have previously identified him as Adolf S. His full name
was given in previous trials in Austria related
to other suspects in the massacre. He also been
identified as a former member of the 5th SS Panzer
Division "Wiking."
The Duisburg
court still must decide whether there is enough
evidence to bring the case to trial. Authorities
did not disclose his attorney's name and the
phone at his home in Duisburg went unanswered.
Storms does
not appear on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list
of most-wanted Nazi war criminals, but the organization's
top Nazi-hunter, Efraim Zuroff, said he was "very encouraged by the indictment."
"He
wasn't on our radar — he wasn't on anyone's radar
— and this is a case that clearly shows it is
possible, even at this point, to identify perpetrators
who bear responsibility for serious crimes committed
during World War II and bring them to justice," Zuroff said.
The remains
of the victims of the Deutsch Schuetzen massacre
were found in 1995 in a mass grave by the Austrian
Jewish association. A plaque now marks the site.
Storms was
interned in an American prisoner of war camp
following the war, but was released in 1946.
It was not uncommon for possible war criminals
to go undetected in the chaotic aftermath of
the war.
Storms worked
as a train-station manager after the war until
his retirement. The Austrian press has reported
he changed the spelling of his name.
Manoschek
described Storms as "fully there" mentally but in poor physical health.
Prosecutor
Andreas Brendel said there no living witnesses
to the forest massacre but statements made during
an Austrian trial of others involved can be used
as evidence against the suspect.
Brendel said
three former members of the Hitler Youth who
were helping the SS guard the prisoners on the
march have provided witness statements in Austria.
A fourth former Hitler Youth member, now living
in Canada, is being interviewed this week, he
told the AP.
According
to Manoschek, several of the former Hitler Youth
were tried in 1946 and convicted and sentenced
to two years in prison for their involvement.
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