Bruno Dey, 93, was given a two-year suspended sentence following a nine-month trial in a juvenile court as he was 17 at the time of the murders, which were carried out between August 1944 and April 1945 at Stutthof Camp in occupied Poland.

Mr Dey, who manned a tower at the camp, said he had been forced into his role and had not been involved in the killings.

He said in his statement to the court that he had been “shaken” by the accounts from witnesses and apologised to “those who went through the hell of this madness”. He said he had been unaware of the “extent of the atrocities” until the trial.

Mr Dey was sent to the camp as a Wehrmacht soldier and had not joined the SS until September 1944. It was argued he could have requested a transfer to another unit.

“When you are a part of mass-murder machinery, it is not enough to look away,” Lars Mahnke, prosecuting, said in his closing arguments.

Prosecutors also argued he had contact with prisoners and had actively prevented their escape.

Guards began using gas chambers at the camp in June 1944. More than 65,000 people are believed to have died in the camp.