War Criminal Released For Health Reasons

A Nazi war criminal, convicted 15 years ago for his involvement in massacring French villagers, has been released from prison because of ill health, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Heinz Barth, who has been serving a life sentence, was freed by the Brandenburg state Supreme Court on July 10 because of diabetes, high blood pressure and other ailments.

Since then the 84-year-old Barth has been living in this quiet northern town, according to the BZ tabloid.

In 1983, a court in then-East Berlin convicted the former SS officer for his role in the slaughter of the villagers of Oradour, near Limoges, France, in 1944. All but 10 of 652 villagers were killed.

Suspending his sentence and placing him on probation, the Brandenburg court decided that Barth - who lost a leg in the war - had served long enough for his crime, according to the newspaper, which did not elaborate.