BERLIN
Prosecutors have asked for three and a half years in prison for a 94-year-old former SS officer for his complicity in the killing of least 300,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp.
State prosecutor Jens Lehmann told the court on Tuesday that Oskar Groening, widely known as the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, should be convicted of assisting the murder of more than 300,000 people at the camp.
During his closing arguments in the high-profile case, Lehmann said the accused had been directly involved in the crimes.
Groening admitted during the trial in April his “moral guilt” over the mass murders but claimed that he never had a direct role. He asked for forgiveness.
Groening claimed he was only assigned to collect money from those who were brought to the camps.
He is charged with complicity in the murders of Jews between May and June 1944, during which around 420,000 arrived at Auschwitz, in Poland. At least 300,000 were gassed to death shortly after their arrival.
Groening’s role as a guard was known in the 1970s but an investigation was abandoned in 1985 when prosecutors ruled there was no proof he was directly responsible for the deaths of prisoners.
However, a ruling in a separate case in 2011 paved the way for prosecuting Nazi guards not directly linked to killings.
The court is expected to give its verdict next week in this high-profile case, which is one of the last Nazi war crime trials.
However, though the court may rule for a prison sentence for Groening, he is unlikely to see any time in jail due to his extreme old age and poor health.
