An 89-year old man accused of hiding his Nazi war criminal past for more than 60-years has been transferred from Federal custody to hospital.  It complicates plans to extradite Johann Breyer from the United States to Germany for a war crimes trial.

German authorities were hoping to put Breyer on trial on 158 counts of accessory to murder — one count for each trainload of victims taken from the Bavarian village of Weiden to the Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland from May 1944 to October 1944.  He has denied taking part in the mass killing of Jews and others there.

But Breyer’s hospitalization throws a spanner in that.  His lawyers say he’s a frail health.  The US Federal Judge cancelled a scheduled hearing this week, and plans to make a decision on extradition based on written arguments.

After World War II, Breyer somehow escaped the authorities’ notice and moved to the United States, settling in Philadelphia where he worked as a toolmaker for decades.  His alleged past started catching up with him in recent years and he was arrested in 2013.