Bruno Dey: Former Nazi guard says ‘misery and horror’ of regime still haunt him

93-year-old apologises to victims of camp, saying he was posted there unwillingly

A former Nazi concentration camp guard has said the “images of misery and horror” of the Stutthof concentration camp have haunted him.

Bruno Dey, 93, faces 5,230 counts of accessory to murder while he was a guard at the camp near Danzig in Poland from 1944-45.

In his first comments at the trial, the former SS private told the court that “the images of misery and horror have haunted me my entire life”.

He apologised to the victims of the camp, saying he had been posted there unwillingly after being deemed unfit for combat duty due to a heart ailment.

Though there is no evidence Mr Dey was involved in a specific killing at the camp, prosecutors argue he helped the camp function in his role as a guard.

He has admitted he heard screams from the camp’s gas chambers and watched as corpses were taken to the crematoria to be burned.

Despite his age, Mr Dey is being tried in juvenile court because he was 17 when he started serving at Stutthof.

He faces a possible six months to 10 years in prison if convicted – in Germany there are no consecutive sentences.

Mr Dey told the court when he learned he had been assigned to Stutthof he attempted to be appointed to work in an army kitchen or bakery instead, as he had training as a baker’s apprentice.

As a guard in the camp, he said he had frequently been assigned to watch over prisoner labour crews working outside the camp.

But, he said, he had never fired his weapon and had once allowed a group to smuggle meat back to the camp from a dead horse they’d discovered.

When he compared his standing naked before a military doctor for an exam to the prisoners standing naked for inspection in Stutthof, Presiding Judge Anne Meier-Goering stopped him, asking whether he did not find his comparison a “slap in the face” to the survivors.

“It was certainly different, in any case,” he said, revising his comment. “One can’t make that comparison.”

The court sessions are being limited to two hours a day, and two sessions a week, in deference of Mr Dey’s age.

His testimony is scheduled to continue on Friday.

Additional reporting by Associated Press