WORLD BRIEFING

Confessed Nazi hit man Heinrich Boere went on trial in the western city of Aachen, charged with the 1944 murders of three Dutch civilians in reprisal for partisan attacks.

The 88-year-old was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair and had a doctor by his side as the proceedings began, but looked alert and attentive as he answered the presiding judge’s questions with simple one-word responses.

The resident of Eschweiler, on the outskirts of Aachen, faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison if convicted of the killings of a bicycle-shop owner, a pharmacist and another civilian while part of an SS death squad code-named Silbertanne, or “Silver Pine.”