Bookkeeper of Auschwitz Oskar Groening faces charge of accessory to 300k murders

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Oskar Groening is being tried on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder
The former SS officer described how Jews were marched to gas chambers
One survivor, Eva Kor, told of her agony as her mother was ripped from her

By Ted Thornhill for MailOnline and Associated Press

Published: 09:40 EST, 22 April 2015 | Updated: 19:02 EST, 22 April 2015

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A former SS sergeant described how so many Jews were brought to the Auschwitz death camp at once that he was put on a 24-hour shift guarding the ramp where they disembarked from the trains.

He told in chilling detail how cattle cars full of Jews were brought to the Auschwitz death camp, the people stripped of their belongings and then most led directly into gas chambers.

Oskar Groening is being tried on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder, related to a period between May and July 1944 when around 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex in Nazi-occupied Poland and most immediately gassed to death.

During that period, so many trains were arriving that often two would have to wait with closed doors as the first was 'processed,' Groening testified at the Lueneburg state court.

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A former SS sergeant (pictured) described in chilling detail Wednesday how cattle cars full of Jews were brought to the Auschwitz death camp, the people stripped of their belongings and then most led directly into gas chambers

Oskar Groening is being tried on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder. He's seen here shuffling out of court on day one of the trial

Eva Kor (pictured) told of how she was never allowed to say goodbye to her mother who was dragged away from her as she arrived at the Nazi death camp

Groening told the court on Tuesday that he is 'morally guilty' but not directly responsible for any deaths

SS Sergeant Oskar Groening - known as 'the bookkeeper of Auschwitz' - is on trial charged with complicity in the killing of 300,000 Jews at the Nazi extermination camp

Inhuman suffering: A photograph of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops in 1945. Eva and Miriam Kor are shown holding hands in the very front

Recovery: Miriam and Eva Kor as shown in a 1949 photo. Eva Kor and her twin sister Miriam were among the 1,500 twins (amounting to 3,000 children) Dr. Josef Mengele experimented on in Auschwitz

'Bookkeeper of Auschwitz' in court accused of accessory to murder

Though he was more regularly assigned to the camp's Auschwitz I section, he said he guarded the Birkenau ramp three times, including one busy 24-hour shift. The main gas chambers were located at Birkenau.

'The capacity of the gas chambers and the capacity of the crematoria were quite limited. Someone said that 5,000 people were processed in 24 hours but I didn't verify this. I didn't know,' he said. 'For the sake of order we waited until train 1 was entirely processed and finished.'

Auschwitz survivors describe their arrival as chaotic, with Nazi guards yelling orders, dogs barking and families being ripped apart.

But Groening, 93, maintained the opposite, saying 'it was very orderly and not as strenuous' on the ramp at Birkenau.

'The process was the same as Auschwitz I. The only difference was that there were no trucks,' he said during the second day of his trial. 'They all walked - some in one direction some, in another direction... to where the crematoria and gas chambers were.'

Auschwitz bookkeeper Oskar Groening's lawyer speaks on trial

Survivor Kor asked Groening whether he knew details about files kept at the camp in hopes of learning more about what diseases she and her sister, who both survived, were injected with

Survivors from Auschwitz (pictured), who are plaintiffs in the case, travelled from the United States, Canada, Hungary and elsewhere to attend Groening's trial

Between May 16 and July 11, 1944, Groening was on duty when 450,000 Hungarian Jews were transported there, with 300,000 being gassed just after arrival. Pictured, Auschwitz survivors

No pleas are entered in the German system and Groening said as his trial opened Tuesday that he considers himself 'morally guilty,' but it was up to the court to decide if he was legally guilty. He faces between three and 15 years in prison if convicted in the trial, which is scheduled through July.

Eva Kor, 81, was one of the Jews who arrived at Auschwitz in 1944. Though she doesn't remember Groening personally, she said she can't forget the scene.

'Everything was going very fast. Yelling, crying, pushing; even dogs were barking. I had never experienced anything that fast or that crazy in my entire life,' she told The Associated Press before addressing the court.

Her two older sisters and parents were taken directly to the gas chambers, while she and her twin sister, both 10 at the time, were ripped away from their mother to be used as human guinea pigs for notorious Dr. Josef Mengele's experiments.

'All I remember is her arms stretched out in despair as she was pulled away,' Kor remembered. 'I never even got to say goodbye.'

Kor, who now lives in Indiana, is one of more than 60 Auschwitz survivors and their families from the U.S., Canada, Israel and elsewhere who have joined the trial as co-plaintiffs as allowed under German law.

Auschwitz survivor and plaintiff Eva Pusztai-Fahidi (right) and her granddaughter Luca Hartai wait for the opening of the trial against Oskar Groening on Tuesday

Groening sits opposite Auschwitz survivors Hedy Bohm (left) and Eva Pusztai-Fahidi (right) at the court room in Lueneburg

General view of the cout before the start of the trial against Groening

Thousands gather to mark 70 years since Auschwitz liberation

Thomas Walther, who represents many co-plaintiffs, said he and his clients were happy Groening agreed to testify, but suspected he was withholding many details.

'There is an ocean of truth, but with many islands of lies,' he said.

Kor, the first co-plaintiff to address the court, described her experience Wednesday and asked Groening whether he knew Mengele or details about files he kept in hopes of learning more about what diseases she and her sister, who both survived the camp, were injected with.

Groening showed no reaction to Kor's statement and his attorney, Hans Holtermann, said his client would try to answer what questions he could, but he didn't believe that Groening knew Mengele.

Groening guarded prisoners' baggage on the ramps, but his main task was to collect and tally money stolen from the new arrivals and then send it to Berlin - a job for which the German press has dubbed him the 'Accountant of Auschwitz.'

While he previously testified he was 'horrified' by individual atrocities he witnessed, he suggested Wednesday his daily thoughts were more pedestrian, like when the guards heard a train loaded with Hungarian Jews would be arriving.

'If this is Hungary, they have bacon on board,' he remembered thinking.

Though he was investigated twice before and no charges were brought, Groening was indicted under a new line of German legal reasoning that anyone who helped a death camp function can be accused of being an accessory to murder without evidence of participation in a specific crime.

Groening, who worked for an insurance company after the war, has testified as a witness in other Nazi trials.

Outside court, Kor said she wished Groening would use the trial to try and dissuade 'misguided young people' today from becoming neo-Nazis but she was still satisfied with his testimony.

'I'm going to take whatever confession he gives - it's better than no confession,' she told reporters. 'Maybe this is the best thing he has ever done in his life. Isn't that sad?'