Demjanjuk trial opens in Germany next month

Suspected death camp guard John Demjanjuk will go on trial in early November on charges of helping to kill 27,900 Jews during World War II, a German court said on Friday.

The case against the 89-year-old retired US auto worker is likely to be Germany's last major Nazi-era war crimes trial.

Demjnjuk, long wanted by the Simon Wiesenthal Center which hunts Nazi war crimes suspects, was deported from the United States in May and has been in jail near Munich ever since.

The court said it had authorized the trial to go ahead and ordered he remain in custody until then.

"The trial will probably begin at the start of November ... no date has been set," the Munich court said in a statement.

The Wiesenthal Center says Demjanjuk pushed men, women and children into gas chambers at the Sobibor death camp in what is now Poland.

Besides Munich state prosecutors, nine individuals are joint plaintiffs in the case, all relatives of victims.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk denies any role in the Holocaust and his family argues he is too frail to stand trial.

Demjanjuk's health is continuing to decline, said his son, adding he was unable to walk and was on heavy medication to ease pain.

"The Wiesenthal Center can continue to make baseless comments but they and Germany are not seeking justice, only a show trial," said John Demjanjuk Junior in a statement, also saying there was no reliable evidence to show he had harmed anyone in the War.