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Former Nazi guard testifies he wasn't involved in killings

Johann Rehbogen told a German court he knew conditions in the Stutthof concentration camp were "miserable" and had attributed the deaths primarily to "diseases and epidemics."
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BERLIN — A former Nazi concentration camp guard on trial on hundreds of counts of accessory to murder has testified he was aware that inmates were dying but says he didn't know they were being killed.

Johann Rehbogen told the Muenster state court Thursday he knew the conditions of the Stutthof camp were "miserable" and had attributed the deaths primarily to "diseases and epidemics."

More than 60,000 people were killed in Stutthof in a gas chamber, by lethal injection, shootings and other methods.

In the statement read by his attorney, the 94-year-old said he didn't know much about the "structure inside the camp," the dpa news agency reported.

He says "they told me which post to take and I obeyed."

Prosecutors argue Rehbogen is an accessory because he helped the camp operate.