MAINZ, Germany — Police raided the homes of three elderly men suspected of taking part in a World War II massacre while members of the Nazi SS, a prosecutor said Friday. 
 
 The three men, all aged around 90, are suspected members of a division believed to have killed more than 80 people, including a priest, in Ascq, northern France in 1944, Dortmund prosecutor Andreas Brendel told NBC News. 
 
 They have not been identified or arrested and all deny involvement, according to officials. Brendel said that the men "might not even be fit for any trial" because of their age. 
 
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 Authorities this week raided apartments near Dresden and Hannover after recent eyewitness accounts linked the three men to the killings, Brendel said. 
 
 "The raids were aimed at finding old documents, photos and personal handwritten notes," he said. 
 
 The men are suspected of membership of the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth," an armored division that drew most of its personnel from Hitler Youth leadership schools, according to HistoryNet. 
 
 The investigation is ongoing. ||||| BERLIN (AP) — German authorities say they've searched the homes of three former SS men believed to have taken part in a World War II massacre in northern France. 
 
 Prosecutor Andreas Brendel told The Associated Press on Friday that the homes of the three men, all around 90 years old, were raided this week in Saxony and Lower Saxony. Authorities confiscated documents, photos and other possible evidence. 
 
 The three are believed to have been members of the 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth," which was responsible for the massacre of 86 men in Ascq, France, in 1944. 
 
 Brendel says all three men, whose names he would not release, are believed to have been present for the massacre but deny that they were. 
 
 The investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed. ||||| German authorities said Friday they had carried out raids at the homes of elderly former SS soldiers accused of war crimes, including involvement in a 1944 civilian massacre in France. 
 
 The three suspects, all in their 90s, were members of the so-called "Hitler Youth" SS division blamed for killing 86 people in the northern French town of Ascq. 
 
 The head of the central Nazi war crimes investigation unit in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Andreas Brendel, told AFP that the probe also covered other unspecified war crimes between April 1944 and May 1945. 
 
 “We also searched the homes of other people and seized documents linked to the Hitler Youth division and the probe into the Ascq massacre but these people are for the moment only considered witnesses” and not suspects, Brendel said. 
 
 On the night of April 1, 1944, 86 people were shot dead in Ascq in revenge for an attack on a troop transport of the “Hitler Youth” division. 
 
 “The accused denied during questioning having been members of the division and thus any participation in the killings,” following the raids carried out on Tuesday and Thursday, Brendel said. 
 
 He said the confiscated documents were now being scoured for clues. Should the investigation lead to criminal charges, the ability of the aged suspects to stand trial must also be assessed. 
 
 “This is always a serious problem with elderly suspects,” he said. 
 
 
 
 “Our aim is to shed light on what happened - it is above all about establishing legal clarity on the Ascq massacre.” 
 
 Brendel also led the investigation into a German former soldier over the Nazis’ worst atrocity on French soil, the 1944 slaughter of 642 people in the tiny village of Oradour-sur-Glane. 
 
 A court in the western city of Cologne finally threw out the case in 2014 against Werner Christukat, then 89, citing a lack of evidence. 
 
 The new investigations are part of a twilight bid by the German justice system to prosecute crimes committed by the Nazis before the last perpetrators die. 
 
 Around a dozen investigations are currently under way against former SS officers who worked at Nazi concentration camps. 
 
 The so-called “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz” Oskar Groening was sentenced to four years in jail last year as an accessory to murder in 300,000 cases in which Hungarian Jews were sent to the gas chambers between May and July 1944. 
 
 Another two cases involving Auschwitz personnel are due to go on trial next month. 
 
 Last Update: Friday, 29 January 2016 KSA 17:01 - GMT 14:01
– German authorities raided the homes of three elderly men whom they suspect played a role in a massacre on French soil while members of the Nazi SS during WWII, NBC News reports. According to the AP, the men—all around the age of 90—may have been involved in the 1944 killing of 86 people in Ascq, France. The men deny they were there. The raids took place this week, with investigators looking for "old documents, photos, and personal handwritten notes," a prosecutor tells NBC. Authorities confiscated some materials, and the AFP reports officials will be combing those documents for clues. The men—allegedly part of the 12th SS Panzer Division, known as the "Hitler Youth" division—were linked to the massacre by "recent eyewitness accounts," NBC reports. No charges have been filed, and authorities are not releasing the men's names. Even if enough evidence is found to charge the men, they may be too old to stand trial. “Our aim is to shed light on what happened—it is above all about establishing legal clarity on the Ascq massacre,” the aforementioned prosecutor, who is leading the investigation, tells AFP. (A 95-year-old Auschwitz medic will stand trial.)