HAMBURG: A defiant ex-Nazi who once had the power to mete out death rises in court to defend himself against charges of unspeakable horrors.

Such a scene has been repeated often since the Nuremberg trials first judged those responsible for World War Two. Generations later, such a trial is again under way in a Hamburg courtroom.

Former Nazi SS officer Friedrich Engel, 93, dubbed the “Butcher of Genoa”, is the latest to answer charges of war crimes during the Third Reich. Experts say other geriatric Germans are likely to follow.

“Justice in the most severe cases demands that they still be tried even today,” says Joachim Riedel, deputy head of Germany’s central office hunting down Nazi war criminals.

Engel was convicted in absentia by an Italian court in 1999 for killing at least 246 Italian prisoners of war in four separate massacres.

He is now on trial in his home town of Hamburg charged with ordering the murder of 59 Italian prisoners in May 1944 in revenge for an attack on a cinema for German soldiers. He has denied ordering the shootings and said he had been present at the killings only as a witness.

The court atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed given the severity of the charges. The judges address the accused as “Dr Engel” — he has a degree in education — and at the end of twice weekly morning proceedings he is free to go home.

On the first day of the trial in May, he warned journalists to get out of his way or he would remove them with his walking stick. However, he said he regretted the past but that he was only following orders.

Engel’s attorney Udo Kneip said the death of many witnesses and fading memories so many years later make Nazi trials problematic today. But he said they would be justified for top figures such as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man Martin Bormann.

Bormann, who was born in 1900, is still on the mind of prosecutor Riedel, but Bormann’s son, who is also called Martin, says there is no chance he is still alive.

“My father has been dead since 1945; it makes no sense to look for him,” he said.

The son, who has long sought reconciliation with Nazi victims, said trials so long after the Nazi defeat are unlikely to put anyone behind bars but still make sense in some cases.

Most historians believe Bormann senior died in 1945. He was sentenced to death in absentia at Nuremberg in 1946.

Although memories have faded, the passage of time has brought certain World War Two episodes into clearer focus as long-sealed archives are opened and other living war criminals unmasked.

“Much depends on political circumstances,” said prosecutor Riedel. “Italy for example had long kept much material on German war crimes under lock and key.

Sometimes it is not even difficult to find the suspected war criminal. Engel has lived in Hamburg for the past 56 years. He said he was barred from working in his chosen field of education because of his SS background so he became a salesman.

The end of the Cold War has also eased access to eastern European archives.

In many ways, the Engel case, which is scheduled to end by July, and others that may follow it are as much about working through the past as in meting out justice today.

END TO TRIALS NEAR: Since World War Two, Germany has opened more than 100,000 Nazi-related cases resulting in 6,500 convictions, according to the Justice Ministry. In recent years the country has seen several prominent successes.