Nazi bookkeeper to stand in the dock - at 93, it's about time.

Last edited Tue Apr 21, 2015, 04:32 AM - Edit history (1)

Former Auschwitz death camp guard to go on trial in Germany

Oskar Gröning, referred to as the ‘accountant of Auschwitz’, is charged with complicity in the murder of 300,000 Holocaust victims.



Oskar Gröning, as seen in 2005. Photograph: Martin Patmore/BBC



Just heard a report on France 24 wherein Herr Gröning says he feels no guilt or compunction.

He was just doin' his job, don't cha know. He suffered a bit of PTSD, but that goes with the terrain.

His special job was to plunder the clothing of the naked prisoners for any money to be found. Here's where he went off whistling to work every day:







"A 93-year-old man who was assigned to confiscate the luggage of prisoners arriving at Auschwitz concentration camp in his capacity as an SS guard is to go on trial in Germany on Tuesday, charged with complicity in the murder of 300,000 Holocaust victims.

Oskar Gröning, referred to as ‘the accountant of Auschwitz’, will stand trial in the north German town of Lüneburg in what is a hugely symbolic act as part of authorities’ last-ditch attempt to put the handful of remaining Nazi death camp guards in the dock before they die.

Only 43 of the 6,500 SS members who worked in the concentration camps have ever faced prosecution. Of those only 25 went to prison and the rest were acquitted.

Unusually, Gröning has been quite outspoken about the two years he spent in Auschwitz, describing in an autobiography as well as lengthy interviews, some of the horrors he witnessed, and admitting that the events have haunted him his entire life. He admitted knowing about the gas chambers. But he has only ever described himself as a 'small cog in the machine' and has repeatedly claimed his innocence."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/20/former-auschwitz-death-camp-guard-oskar-groning-on-trial-germany