Auschwitz SS officer ‘sorry’

A former SS officer known as the ‘Book-keeper of Auschwitz’ said he was “very sorry” for his time stationed at the Nazi death camp, ahead of a verdict in Germany expected today

“No one should have taken part in Auschwitz”, Oskar Groening, 94, told a court in the northern city of Lueneburg yesterday.

“I know that. I sincerely regret not having lived up to this realisation earlier and more consistently. I am very sorry.”

Groening has been on trial since April accused of 300,000 counts of accessory to murder in the cases of deported Hungarian Jews sent to the gas chambers between May and July 1944.

One of his lawyers, Susanne Frangenberg, called for an acquittal arguing that “Mr Groening’s role at Auschwitz was minor”.

Last week, public prosecutors said they were seeking three and a half years’ jail for Groening based on the “nearly incomprehensible number of victims”, but mitigated by “the limited contribution of the accused” to their deaths.

The court, which said that it would hand down its verdict today could sentence Groening to up to 15 years though most observers say it is unlikely he would serve jail time due to his advanced age.

Groening served as a book-keeper at Auschwitz, sorting and counting the money taken from those killed or used as slave labour, collecting cash in various European currencies, and sending it back to Berlin.