93-year-old woman investigated over claims she was Nazi SS guard who helped march 1,400 people to their deaths

Hilde Michnia denies the claims - saying she only worked in the kitchens

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (Rex features)

German prosecutors are investigating a 93-year-old woman on suspicion that she served as a Nazi SS guard during World War II.

It is claimed that Hilde Michnia was also involved in forcing prisoners on a march during which about 1,400 women died.

Hamburg prosecutors' spokesman Carsten Rinio said his office had begun the investigation of Ms Michnia last week after a private citizen had filed a complaint against her that was allowed under German law.

She is suspected of serving as a guard in the Bergen-Belsen and Gross-Rosen concentration camps, and having been part of evacuating the latter camp near the end of the war and forcing prisoners to march to the Guben labour camp further west.

Ms Michnia told Die Welt newspaper she had not been involved in any atrocities and only worked in the kitchens.

A German court recently confirmed that 93-year-old Oskar Groening will go on trial in April on allegations he was accessory to 300,000 murders at the Auschwitz death camp while serving as an SS guard.

The trial for Groening, known as the "accountant of Auschwitz," is due to open on April 21 in Lueneburg.

Oskar Groening has been candid during interviews about his time as an SS guard at Hitler's infamous death camp, but insisted that he only witnessed atrocities and did not commit any crimes.

Agency