German war crime investigators have located roughly 20 former guards of the Majdanek death camp who could face accessory to murder charges by federal prosecutors.

Daily Mail reports that 30 former guards, all of whom live in Germany, were identified and approximately 10 have passed away.

Federal authorities are currently debating whether the ex-Nazis should be charged, as they were merely following orders when they assisted in the murders of hundreds of thousands of Jews and other exterminated during World War II.

Germany’s Nazi war crimes office is still pursuing 220 other men and women who served as guards at Hitler’s death camps.

In 2011, deceased Ohio auto mechanic John Demjanjuk became the first person to be convicted solely for serving as a guard at a death camp.

He repeatedly denied working at a death camp and there was no evidence that he voluntarily took part in any killings, but prosecutors said he is just one of thousands of guards who needed to be investigated.

An estimated 360,000 prisoners were killed at Majdanek, and around 1,000 people who worked at the Poland camp are being pursued for murder charges because they were employed at the camp when mass murders took place.

The fate of these former guards will be revealed in the coming months.

The head of the aforementioned war crimes office, Efraim Zuroff, is urging federal prosecutors to hunt these people down before they die.

According to Daily Mail he said,

We are very hopeful that the work will be expedited so as many people as possible can be brought to justice

Also being pursued are 30 living former employees of Auschwitz, the most extreme of all the camps.

elitedaily.com