Formanek, a guard during the Holocaust, was set to be held accountable for his alleged role in one of the Third Reich's most horrific killing machines. He was charged last year with helping to murder 3,300 people at the notorious WW2 prison near Berlin, including prisoners of war, jews and political detainees. His crimes ran from July 1943 to February 1945. Formanek, who was a teenager during his time at the camp, was ruled fit enough to face trial by German officials last year.
The entrance to the former concentration camp Sachsenhausen (Image: Getty)
However, on April 2, 2025, he died aged 100, meaning he will never be put before a dock and will take his secrets to the grave.
His death was confirmed by the Hanau Regional Court only this week.
Formanek was ruled unfit to stand trial back in June last year, however the higher regional court in Frankfurt in December said it had overturned a decision by a lower court.
Critics say those delays in proceedings played into the hands of the elderly man.
“He helped kill thousands,” said one co-plaintiff. “He lived free for 80 years. The victims never had that chance.”
A document drawn up by the East German secret police, the Stasi, chillingly states that Mr Formanek, “continually killed prisoners”.
A gate at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial (Image: Getty)
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Born in Romania, Formanek had lived under the radar for decades in a flat near Frankfurt with his wife.
At the end of the war, Formanek was captured by Russia's Red Army and spent just 10 years behind bars before being released to find work as a porter
Germany has been scrambling to bring the last surviving former Nazi war criminals to justice since a 2011 landmark ruling paved the way for several trials.
More than 200,000 people, including Jews, Roma, regime opponents and gay people, were detained at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1936 and 1945.
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