Germany is still conducting criminal proceedings against 29 people for their involvement in Nazi crimes during World War II, including guards at concentration camps, German public broadcaster NDR said on Tuesday.

In total, investigations are being carried out into 50 named individuals, including some women, NDR said.

In many cases, it is not clear if the suspects are still alive or not.

A court in Hamburg will in October open a trial against a 93-year-old former guard at the concentration camp Stutthof near Gdansk in modern-day Poland.

The man is charged with accessory to murder in 5,230 cases.

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Investigators in Hamburg are also looking into a case against a 97-year-old woman, who was once a supervisor at the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, and who is suspected to have been involved in a “death march” in 1945, during which 1,400 women were killed.

As the Allied forces closed in on Nazi Germany towards the end of World War II, the Nazis ordered that many concentration camps be emptied, with guards forcing thousands of former inmates to walk for miles, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

NDR said most of the cases had been sparked by preliminary investigations conducted at the central office in Ludwigsburg charged with resolving crimes conducted by the Nazi regime.

The authorities there attempt to find out if possible perpetrators are still alive, and whether they can be charged.

Once the preliminary investigations are complete, the Ludwigsburg authorities pass on any information to prosecutors across Germany, who then determines whether formal proceedings can take place. (dpa/NAN)