'Auschwitz book-keeper' Oskar Groening sentenced to four years
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Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.Media captionThe BBC's Jenny Hill: The judge accepted... that Groening was "guilty in law"
A German court has convicted a 94-year-old former guard at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz of being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews.
Oskar Groening, known as the "book-keeper of Auschwitz", was sentenced to four years in prison.
He was responsible for counting the belongings confiscated from prisoners and had admitted "moral guilt".
His lawyers said he did not facilitate genocide, but prosecutors argued that he had helped the camp run smoothly.
Many observers have questioned whether Groening will ultimately be sent to jail, given his advanced age. He is expected to be one of the last Nazis to face a courtroom.
The trial was held in the northern German city of Lueneburg. Delivering the verdict, Judge Franz Kompisch said Groening had willingly taken a "safe desk job" in a system that was "inhumane and all but unbearable for the human psyche".
The trial, which began earlier this year, heard evidence from several people who had survived the death camp.
One of the survivors, Eva Kor, said she forgave Groening, and tweeted a picture of herself shaking his hand.
Survivors of Auschwitz took to the stand to testify about the campAfter the verdict, Leon Schwarzbaum, a survivor of Auschwitz, told AFP news agency that he could not forgive Groening for the killing of his family members.
He said he agreed with the judge's decision - but did not want to see Groening jailed.
"I am happy with the verdict, but I don't wish prison on him because I know what it's like to be in prison," he said. "I was in Auschwitz for two years."
The testimony of Auschwitz survivor Judith Kalman
As a child, I formed a strange myth to explain the baffling circumstances of my existence.
Early on, through my father's stories and my mother's startling revelations of horror, I absorbed the knowledge that innocent children could be murdered and whole families and communities eradicated by forces beyond their control.
The family I never knew
A statement from a group of Holocaust survivors and victims' relatives said the pain of losing families at Auschwitz could not be alleviated by criminal proceedings or the words of the accused.
"But it gives us satisfaction that now the perpetrators cannot evade prosecution as long as they live," the statement said.
The case revolved around the question of whether people who had played a minor role in the Nazi-ordered genocide but had not actively killed any Jews could still be guilty of a crime.
Cornelius Nestler, a lawyer for a group of plaintiffs, said the case demonstrated that Auschwitz as a whole was "a murder machinery".
"Everyone who participated in it has to take responsibility for it," he told Reuters news agency.
Who is Oskar Groening?
Oskar Groening described "orderly" scenes as trainloads of Jews were taken to the gas chambersBorn in 1921 in Lower Saxony, Germany
Joined the Hitler Youth and then the Waffen SS
Worked at Auschwitz from 1942, counting money confiscated from prisoners
Expressed regret and spoke openly of Auschwitz experiences, saying he wanted to counter Holocaust deniers
'Book-keeper of Auschwitz'
Groening had publicly discussed his role at Auschwitz, making him unusual among former Nazis brought to trial. He said he was speaking out in order to silence those who deny the Holocaust took place.
"I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematoria," he told the BBC in the 2005 documentary Auschwitz: the Nazis and the "Final Solution".
"I was on the ramp when the selections [for the gas chambers] took place."
More than one million people, most of them European Jews, died between 1940 and 1945 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp
Construction began in 1940 on site that grew to 40 sq km (15 sq miles)
About one million Jews were killed at the camp
Other victims included Roma (Gypsies), disabled people, homosexuals, dissidents, non-Jewish Poles and Soviet prisoners
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How did one Englishman save 669 children from the Holocaust?
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After Auschwitz: Testimony at trial
29 April 2015
Profile: 'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz'
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