An unnamed woman in Germany has been charged with 260,000 counts of accessory to murder in connection with Nazi activity at Auschwitz from April to July of 1944, the Associated Press reports. The 91-year-old is accused of working as a radio operator for the concentration camp’s commandant.
This isn’t the first instance of prosecutions of those not directly involved in the era’s violence. In 2011, John Demjanjuk was convicted of assisting in 28,060 murders at occupied Poland’s Sobibor camp, where he was a guard. This case set the precedent for charging camp guards, even though they did not directly gas prisoners, for war crimes.
As a part of renewed efforts to bring Nazi soldiers and workers to justice, last year German prosecutors arrested a 94-year-old Philadelphian, Oskar Gröning, on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder. In July of this year he was convicted for seizing money from and aiding in the deaths of prisoners who arrived at Auschwitz.
The courts will likely decide next year on what to do with the case of the alleged radio operator, whose name is protected by German privacy laws.