A 93-year-old former guard at the Auschwitz concentration camp has been charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder, German prosecutors announced Monday.
Oskar Groening is believed to have worked at the death camp from May to July 1944, when 425,000 Jews were brought in from Hungary. Almost immediately, more than 300,000 were killed.
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In a 2005 interview with Der Spiegel, Groening said he saw the crimes happening at Auschwitz, but did not participate. "Accomplice would almost be too much for me," he said. "I would describe my role as a 'small cog in the gears.' If you can describe that as guilt, then I am guilty, but not voluntarily. Legally speaking, I am innocent."
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