No 4 on Nazi most wanted list dies before trial

A 90-year-old former SS sergeant who was No 4 on the most wanted list of Nazi war criminals has died in Germany before his case came to trial.

Published: 5:49PM BST 06 Jul 2010

Adolf Storms died at his home in the western city of Duisburg on June 28, according to German authorities.

Storms, who worked unnoticed for decades as a train-station manager, was charged by Brendel's office last November with 58 counts of murder for alleged involvement in a wartime massacre of Jewish forced labourers in Austria.

He was on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Most Wanted list.

Storms and unidentified accomplices were accused of forcing at least 57 Hungarian Jewish labourers to hand over their valuables and kneel by a grave before fatally shooting them. He was also accused of shooting another Jew during a forced match.

At the time of the massacre during the second World War, the Nazis were desperately evacuating concentration camps, forcing emaciated prisoners on exhausting marches and killing those too weak to carry on.

"He was not in prison because there was no reason for him to be put there, such as the risk he might run away. We assume he died at home in Duisburg," said Andreas Brendel from the prosecutors' office in Dortmund.

"We are disappointed. We would have liked a trial to take place. But we still needed to clear up the question of whether he was fit to be tried," said Brendel.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/7875301/No-4-on-Nazi-most-wanted-list-dies-before-trial.html