Authorities searched the house of Hans Lipschis near Nuremberg Monday. According to police, the suspect was taken into custody after authorities concluded there was "compelling evidence" he was involved in murders at the camp.
Prosecutors say he worked at the Auschwitz camp complex from 1941 to 1945. Nearly 1.5 million people were killed at the death camp between that time.
Lipschis maintains he only served as a cook and was not involved in any war crimes.
Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter with the Simon Wiesenthal Center says Lipschis is No. 4 on his current list of "most wanted Nazi war criminals."
"This is a very positive step, we welcome the arrest," Zuroff told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Israel. "I hope this will only be the first of many arrests, trials and convictions of death camp guards."
The suspect was deported from the U.S. in 1983 for lying about his Nazi past when he immigrated to Chicago in the 1950s after the war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
