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Former Auschwitz guard to stand trial for murder of 300,000

December 17, 2014 09:55
Oskar Groening worked at Auschwitz from 1942 onwards

By

Josh Jackman,

Josh Jackman

1 min read

A 93-year-old former Auschwitz guard has been ruled fit to stand trial next year on mass-murder charges.

Oskar Groening was employed at the concentration camp in occupied Poland in mid-1944, when 300,000 people were killed on arrival. His job was to send valuable possessions of the deceased to Germany.

The former SS officer, who will be tried as an accessory to murder in the northern German city of Lueneburg, was originally charged in September.

In a statement at the time, prosecutors said: “The accused knew that, as part of the selection process, those not chosen for work and told they were going to the showers were really going to the gas chambers where they would be put to death in an agonising manner.”

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