Former SS guard Oskar Groening sits in ths sun during the noon break of the trial against him in Lueneburg, northern Germany
A former Auschwitz guard was taking the stand for a second day yesterday to answer judges’ questions about his role at the death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
SS Sgt. Oskar Groening told the court in Lueneburg on Tuesday that he helped keep watch as thousands of Jews were led from cattle cars directly to the gas chambers, and that he shared “moral guilt” for what happened to them.
“It’s very clear that I am morally guilty for the murders and I acknowledge that guilt here today with remorse,” said Groening, who vividly described his time at the camp more than 70 years ago. “As to the question of guilt under criminal law, this is for the court to decide.”
The 93-year-old, who is charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder, said he witnessed individual atrocities but did not acknowledge participating in any crimes.
He told judges that he unsuccessfully tried to be relocated to another post or to the front. The first time was when he saw an SS guard kill a baby by smashing it against a truck. The second was when he saw an SS soldier pour gas through a slot into a farmhouse where Jews were held. He heard the victims’ screams, which eventually faded away, Groening said.
Groening’s case is the first after the 2011 conviction of former Sobibor camp guard John Demjanjuk. German prosecutors are trying to show that lower-ranking staff at concentration camps can be held responsible because they knew about the killings and supported the system, if only in administrative roles.
Eva Kor, a survivor of the death camp, is scheduled to testify after Groening. Some 60 survivors and relatives from the U.S., Canada, Israel and elsewhere have joined the trial as co-plaintiffs, as allowed under German law. AP/Bloomberg
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