He was initially a guard at Esterwegen concentration camp in the Emsland region of Germany.

Sorge was repatriated to West Germany in 1956 on the condition that he continue to serve the life sentence imposed by the Soviets.

He was put on trial with fellow SS guard, Wilhelm Schubert, in Bonn for the 1941 murders of over 13,000 Soviet prisoners of war, many of whom were invalided, at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The retrial was ordered by the Federal Ministry of Justice of Germany to assuage public concern that the original verdicts in 1947 were indeed warranted.

He was convicted of 67 individual murders and numerous counts of manslaughter and re-sentenced to a life term.