An 88-year-old German was charged Wednesday with participating in one of the most notorious massacres of civilians during World War II. Meanwhile, the murder charges against a 92-year-old former Nazi officer in the slaying of a Dutch resistance fighter were dropped because of lost evidence.

The two cases, which are unrelated, mark the latest developments in a last-ditch effort on the part of German prosecutors to bring Nazi war criminals, most of whom are in their 90s, to justice.

The 88-year-old from Cologne was charged with participating in the June 1944 Nazi massacre in the French village Oradour-sur-Glane, in which 642 inhabitants, including about 400 women and children, were gunned down and burned alive. Only a handful of people in the town in the west-central region of Limousin survived....