This long form article from Johannes Böhme in Die Zeit was not what I expected, yet I remained captivated to the very end. You’ll want to set aside some time to read and sit with this one:

On August 7, 2023, a 176-page indictment arrived at the courthouse. It accused Gregor Formanek of being an accessory to murder in 3,322 cases. As a member of the SS, he had served as a guard in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from July 1943 to February 1945.

He was 19 years old when he became a guard in Sachsenhausen. Which is why prosecutors were seeking to try the elderly man in the chamber for juvenile delinquents.

In all likelihood, this would be the last opportunity to bring a perpetrator of the Holocaust to justice. Formanek’s case will probably mark the end of the almost eight-decades-long process of coming to terms with the Holocaust in German courtrooms, a journey that began with the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Formanek was indicted for his war crimes at the age of 99.

Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, and the rest of this administration should pay close attention.