German police arrested on Monday a 93-year-old man suspected of being a former guard at the Auschwitz death camp from 1941 to 1945.
Prosecutors of southern German city Stuttgart said in a statement that the suspect, whose name was not disclosed according to German laws, was in custody while charges were being prepared against him, adding that there was "compelling evidence" he was involved in crimes while working at Auschwitz.
The suspect, whose named was revealed by local media as Hans Lipschis, had said he was a cook in the camp and was not involved in any war crimes. The man emigrated to the United States in the 1950s but was deported in 1983 for lying about his Nazi past.
It was previously impossible to press charges against him in Germany as there was no evidence linking him to specific crimes. However, new legal theories make it possible to charge a person who served at a death camp with accessory to murder even without proof of participation in a specific crime.
More than one million people, most of whom were Jews, died at Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945.
