Oscar Groening, a 93-year-old former Waffen SS member, is on trial for 300,000 counts of accessory to murder.
The trial is significant as it applies a new legal theory that allows for the prosecution of death camp workers for the Holocaust, even if they did not directly kill anyone.
Groening was stationed at Auschwitz and is known as the "Auschwitz accountant," responsible for collecting victims' valuables.
Key Individuals
Oscar Groening: Formerly part of the Waffen SS, claims moral but not legal guilt.
Hedy Bohm: An 86-year-old Auschwitz survivor, will testify against Groening. Deported to Auschwitz as a teenager with her family, where her parents were murdered.
Trial Details
Groening argues that he was just a cog in the "Nazi murder machine" and did not directly kill anyone.
His job involved managing the valuables of victims, earning him the title "bookkeeper of death."
Legal Precedent
Traditionally, Nazi war crimes trials, like those at Nuremberg, required direct proof of involvement in murder.
Groening's trial is the first where complicity in the Holocaust murder machine may be enough for a conviction.
Reactions
Hedy Bohm believes Groening's acceptance of moral guilt is insufficient and views it as a "cop-out."
German Prosecution Record
The prosecution record for Nazi war crimes in Germany is poor, with fewer than 50 of the over 6,000 SS members alive at the end of the war being prosecuted and convicted.