Germany sentences ex-Auschwitz guard to 4 years as accessory to 300,000 murders

A German court sentenced former SS officer Oskar Groening to 4 years in prison

(Image credit: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 15 July 2015

On Wednesday, a court in Lueneburg, Germany, sentenced 94-year-old former SS officer Oskar Groening to four years in prison as an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews at the Auschwitz death camp. Groening, who had said he shared "moral guilt" for the deaths, acknowledged at the trial that he had guarded the luggage of condemned Jews when they arrived at Auschwitz in May and June 1944 and collected money taken from them. The judges agreed with prosecutors that such actions aided in mass murder. Prosecutors had asked for a three-and-a-half-year sentence for the "accountant of Auschwitz." The trial will likely be one of Germany's last prosecutions of former Nazis.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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