A former sergeant with the SS has been charged on 3,681 counts of accessory to murder, dating back to his time as a medic in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Nazi reign.
The 94-year old suspect is said to have helped the camp function, according to state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state prosecutor Stefan Urbanek.
Defence lawyer Peter-Michael Distel told the Bild newspaper there was no evidence of a "concrete criminal act".
The suspect cannot be named due to Germany's strict privacy laws.
Over 1 million people died in the Nazi death camp between 1940 and 1945, most of them Jews.
Former SS officer to stand trial for 300,000 counts of accessory murder (16 December 2014)