Gas chamber
Gas chamberiStock

Bruno Dey, who is accused of serving as a guard in the Stutthof concentration camp in northern Poland from 1941 to 1944, admitted on Friday in a Hamburg court that he saw Jewish prisoners being led to gas chambers.

Dey is being tried on 5,230 counts of accessory to murder while he served as a guard at the Stutthof camp. He was asked on Friday what exactly he saw from the watchtower where he was stationed and the 93-year-old replied, "I saw the people being led inside, to the gas chambers, and then the door was locked. I heard screams and bangs on the door shortly after. I didn't know they were being gassed."

Dey said that "20 to 30 people were taken to the gas chambers at a time. They were led in without resistance on their part. I couldn't tell if it was men or women since their heads were shaved."

"I never saw anyone come out from there. Only once I saw a group of 10 to 15 men being taken to the gas chambers, but then they came out and were taken to the crematorium building by people in white overalls. I heard the Nazi officers whispering that the prisoners need to work outside the camp and they need to be checked first."

Dey told the judge that he and another 400 soldiers had been brought to serve in the Stutthof concentration camp in northern Poland in June or July 1941 and that he didn't know who was imprisoned there. "We heard only rumors that they were political prisoners and Jews."

There is no evidence that Dey is guilty of a specific murder at the camp but prosecutors say that he assisted in the camp's functioning by serving as a guard.

Despite his age, Dey is on trial in Hamburg Juvenile Court due to the fact that he was 17 when he served as a guard in the concentration camp.

If convicted, Dey faces six months to 10 years in prison. In German law, there are no consecutive sentences.