Nazi war criminal Klaas Carel Faber dies in Germany

Faber had been living in this block of flats in the southern German town of Ingolstadt

Dutch-born Nazi war criminal Klaas Carel Faber has died in Germany at the age of 90.

Faber, who served in an SS unit, was second on the <link> <caption>Simon Wiesenthal Centre list of most-wanted Nazi criminals.</caption> <altText>Wiesenthal Centre Most-Wanted list</altText> <url href="http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7B54d385e6-f1b9-4e9f-8e94-890c3e6dd277%7D/ANNUAL%20STATUS%20REPORT%20ON%20THE%20WORLDWIDE%20INVESTIGATION%20AND%20PROSECUTION%20OF%20NAZI%20WAR%20CRIMINALS.PDF" platform="highweb"/> </link>

He was sentenced to death in 1947 for the deaths of 22 Jews at the Westerbork transit camp. His term was later commuted to life.

Faber escaped in 1952, was given German citizenship and died in Bavaria, where he had been living.

A hospital official in the southern Bavarian town of Ingolstadt confirmed that he had died on Thursday, according to Associated Press. He reportedly died of kidney failure.

Faber had lived as a free man in Germany despite several attempts to try or extradite him.

Germany refused his extradition on the grounds that he was a German citizen.

Recently, an Ingolstadt prosecutor filed a motion to enable him to serve his sentence in Germany.

Originally from the western Dutch town of Haarlem, Faber served in an SS unit known as Kommando Feldmeijer during World War II.

The group was renowned for killing around 50 Dutch civilians considered "anti-German" as reprisals for attacks by the resistance.

In 2010, a member of the same SS unit, Heinrich Boere, was sentenced to life by a court in the German city of Aachen for the murder of three Dutch civilians in 1944.

Boere, Faber and Faber's brother, Pieter, had all been involved in the Silbertanne (Silver Pine) operation. Pieter Faber was executed for war crimes in 1948.