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.

ELDERLY Auschwitz survivors gathered in the snow at the site of the former death camp yesterday to mark the 65th anniversary of its liberation.

Pope Benedict XVI, making sentimental stops in his predecessor’s homeland, brought joy to Poles by announcing that he hopes John Paul II will be made a saint “in the near future".