SLOW JUSTICE

Germany Puts Former Nazi On Trial

For killing a Dutch resistance fighter.

Siert Bruins, a Dutch-born former Nazi, has gone to trial in Germany for killing a resistance fighter in 1944. He was tried for the crime in absentia in 1949 and received a death sentence that was later commuted to life in prison. Bruins, who is 92, could not be extradited because he had German citizenship. He joined the Waffen SS and became a Nazi after Adolf Hitler's army conquered his homeland. Bruins already served time in the 1980s for killing two Dutch Jews. His prosecution comes at a time when German officials are opening up new investigations of Nazi-era crimes, including those connected to the death camps at Auschwitz.