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A former Nazi guard charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 19 Jewish children in 1942 was convicted Friday and sentenced to 20 months’ probation.
Judge Paul Schwellenbach of the Cologne state court declared Ernst Hering, 75, guilty of helping to murder the children.
Hering admitted at his trial he stood guard at the village of Israilovka in the Soviet republic of Ukraine when the children were hauled away and murdered by members of his paramilitary unit.
But Hering said that he was 19 at the time and did not know that his superiors intended to kill the children. Because of his age at the time of the killings, Hering was tried as a minor under German law.
