On 30 January the decision was made by the District Court not to hold a full trial of seven of the defendants because at the time of the crime they would have been adjudged to have found themselves under a putative (claimed) threat from the Nazi authorities (Putativnotstand).

Oberhauser, who did not comment on the case, pleaded that he was acting under superior orders, as did the other defendants in the Belzec trial, and also drew attention to the gaol sentence he already served out in the GDR.

[2] This first trial connected with the three death camps at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka established under Action Reinhardt exposed the difficulties faced by the German federal judiciary in punishing with Nazi war crimes.

In addition to the difficult problems of distinguishing between perpetrators and accessories, the evidence could often not be furnished, as is shown in another case: Amongst the four attempted murders, the excessive actions included the shooting at an old woman carried out by Gomerski with a submachine gun at close range.

As part of the trial of John Demjanjuk in 2009–10, witness' statements from the 1940s and 1960s were made available relating to yet another former security guard at Belzec, Samuel K. who was 88 years old at the time and living in Wachtberg im Rhein-Sieg-Kreis.