The longest Nazi prosecution in German legal history was adjourned Saturday because the defendant had grown too incompetent to continue the 13-year-oldproceedings.
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A circuit court in Hanover decided to dismiss the case against former SS squad leader Heinrich Niemeyer, 70, on the advice of doctors. Niemeyer was accused of shooting Jewish prisoners as the Nazis fled the Auschwitz death camp in 1945 during the waning days of World War II.The prosecution still can appeal the court's decision. Niemeyer was sentenced to six years in prison in 1979, but the German Supreme Court subsequently took up the case because of a procedural error and ordered a retrial.