GERMANY:Heinz Barth, a former Nazi SS officer who was convicted of involvement in a massacre of French villagers in 1944, has died, a priest in the German town where he lived said yesterday. He was 86.
Barth died of cancer in the past few days, said Fr Heinz-Dieter Schmidtke, the parish priest in Gransee, north of Berlin. He could not provide the exact date of his death, and did not say where he died.
In 1983 a court in East Berlin sentenced Barth to life in prison for his role in the slaughter of villagers in Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944, the worst single atrocity in Nazi-occupied France. All but 10 of 652 villagers were killed.
East German judges also found that Barth volunteered to participate in an execution of 92 Czech civilians in 1942.
Barth had lived under a false name in communist East Germany, working as a decorator in Gransee and running a grocery store, until his true identity emerged in 1981.
In 1997 a state court freed Barth on health grounds, commuting his sentence to probation. Barth, who lost a leg in the war, suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure and other ailments.
Fr Schmidtke said Barth had lived a secluded life in Gransee, where he was a member of the church community but did not participate in its activities.
He said Barth's burial would take place next month.