Polish testimonies lead Austria to investigate former Nazi camp guard

Majdanek camp

Austrian prosecutors are investigating new allegations against a former Nazi concentration camp guard whom it is alleged beat a man to death at the Majdanek camp in Poland. The person named by prosecutors is a woman, now 85 years old, and believed to be living in Vienna. The new material has come from sources in Poland.

The woman named by prosecutors is Erna Wallisch. German born with Austrian citizenship she has lived in Austria since the 1950's. Between 1942 and 44 she was a guard at Majdanek in Poland where the Nazis murdered 79,000 people. According to Efraim Zuroff from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Wallisch abused inmates and sent them to their deaths in the gas chambers. Joanna King reports.