Berlin , Germany ( CNN ) -- A 90-year-old man from northern Germany has been charged with 58 counts of murder for the killings of Jewish forced laborers in the final days of World War Two . The man , who was not named , was a member of the feared SS serving in what is now Austria when he allegedly carried out the crimes , the state court in Duisburg , western Germany , said Tuesday . A state office responsible for the prosecution of Nazi war crimes filed the charges . On March 29 , 1945 , the man brought at least 57 Jewish forced laborers in several groups to a wooded area where they were forced to give up their valuables and kneel in a ditch , the court said . `` The accused and other SS members then shot the Jewish forced laborers cruelly from the back , '' the court said . That day or the next , the court said , the man made other Jewish forced laborers who were `` exhausted and no longer able to walk '' to march near the town of Jabing , which was then in Germany and is now part of modern-day Austria . He then `` insidiously '' shot them from the back , it added . `` The accusation is that the accused let himself be led by the National Socialist ( Nazi ) ideology , corresponding to an extremely hostile and inhumane attitude toward the victims , who he viewed as inferior , '' the court said . The court said it must now decide whether to open proceedings against the man , who has two weeks in which to raise any objections .
Man from northern Austria charged with at least 57 counts of killing Nazi laborers . Killings took place just weeks from the end of World War Two . Man is accused of being part of an CNN group that carried out executions .