93-year-old investigated for Nazi past

4/24/2013

BERLIN — A 93-year-old man who acknowledges he served with the SS in Auschwitz but claims he was only a cook is under investigation by German authorities as a possible accessory to murder.

Hans Lipschis was deported from the U.S. in 1983 for lying about his Nazi past when he immigrated there after the war. Thomas Will, a prosecutor with the German office that deals with Nazi war crimes, says a new investigation was only possible after the case of John Demjanjuk.

Demjanjuk was the first person convicted in Germany on the basis of serving as a camp guard, without evidence he was involved in a specific killing. He died last year while appealing his 2011 conviction.

Will said today that prosecutors are determining whether charges can be filed against Lipschis.