Oskar Groening Biography

Oskar Gröning is a German ex- SS junior squad leader. He was posted at Auschwitz concentration camp during the World War II. He was responsible for supervising the personal property of the prisoners, and counting and sorting the money taken from them. He was also privy to the genocides that went on in the concentration camp. He was transferred from Auschwitz to a combat unit later. Gröning was captured by the British when his unit surrendered. In due course, he was transferred to Britain as a war prisoner where he worked as a forced labourer. After his release, he started leading a normal life in Germany and never talked about his term in Auschwitz. However, after learning about the Holocaust Denial, Oskar Groening criticised the people who denied the genocide of Jews and refuted the idea that holocaust was a Jewish conspiracy. He confirmed his involvement in the holocaust but denied being an accomplice in the accounts given to BBC. However, his public statements exposed him to criminal prosecution. He was charged as an accessory to the murder of over 300,000 people. The trial began when Oskar Groening was 93 years old. This trial in Lüneburg, Germany ended with Groening being found guilty of assisting in genocides. He was sentenced to four years in prison.