A 93-year-old man is going on trial in Germany on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder over allegations that he helped the functioning of the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland by serving as a guard there.
Oskar Groening is accused of serving at Auschwitz between May and June 1944, when some 425,000 Jews from Hungary were taken there and at least 300,000 almost immediately gassed to death.
Prosecutors say that, among other things, he helped to collect and tally money as part of his job dealing with the belongings stolen from camp victims, earning him the moniker “Accountant of Auschwitz”.
Groening does not deny serving as a guard there, but says he committed no crime.
He was expected to address the charges as his trial opened in Lueneburg, south of Hamburg, today.