Oskar Gröning | |
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Oskar Gröning as a young man
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Born |
Nienburg, Lower Saxony, Germany |
10 June 1921
Residence | Germany |
Known for | SS guard at Auschwitz concentration camp, denunciation of Holocaust denial |
Oskar Gröning (sometimes transliterated as Oscar Groening in English; born 10 June 1921) is a German former SS junior squad leader who was stationed at Auschwitz concentration camp. His responsibilities included counting and sorting the money taken from prisoners, and he was in charge of the personal property prisoners had arrived with. On a few occasions he witnessed the procedures of mass-killing in the camp. After being transferred from Auschwitz to a combat unit in October 1944, Gröning was captured by the British on 10 June 1945 when his unit surrendered. He was eventually transferred to Britain as a prisoner of war and worked as a forced labourer.
Upon his return to Germany he led a normal life, reluctant to talk about his time in Auschwitz. However, more than 40 years later, he decided to make his activities at Auschwitz public after learning about Holocaust denial. He has since openly criticised those who deny the events that he witnessed, and the ideology to which he once subscribed. The recorded accounts he provided to the BBC, however, contributed to the decision and ability to prosecute him. His record as an activist against Holocaust deniers since 1985 was not taken into consideration. Gröning has been notable as a German willing to make public statements about his experience as an SS soldier, which are self-incriminating and have exposed his life to public scrutiny.
In September 2014, Gröning was charged by German prosecutors as an accessory to murder, in 300,000 cases, for his role at the Auschwitz concentration camp. His trial began in April 2015, after the court had ruled that, at the age of 93, he was still fit to stand trial. The trial was held in Lüneburg, Germany. On 15 July 2015, he was found guilty of facilitating mass murder and sentenced to four years' imprisonment.
Gröning was born in 1921, in Lower Saxony, the son of a strict conservative and skilled textile worker. His mother died when he was four. His father, a proud nationalist, joined the Stahlhelm after Germany's defeat in the First World War, and his anger at how Germany had been treated following the Treaty of Versailles increased as his textile business went bankrupt in 1929 due to insufficient capital.