The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has identified dozens of former members of Nazi mobile death squads who might still be alive, and is pushing the German government for an investigation.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has identified dozens of former members of Nazi mobile death squads who might still be alive, and is pushing the German government for an investigation.

Thirty alleged former Auschwitz guards have been accused of Nazi war crimes by a special German prosecutors’ office, opening the possibility of a new wave of trials almost 70 years after the Second World War.

German prosecutors have reopened hundreds of dormant investigations of former Nazi death camp guards and others who might now be charged under a new precedent set by the conviction of retired US car worker John Demjanjuk.

Nazi war crimes suspect John Demjanjuk will go on trial in Munich today in a case that breaks new ground in Germany’s pursuit of Holocaust perpetrators.