Nazi SS guard dubbed the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz appeals against his jail sentence for accessory to murder - claiming it 'violates his right to life'

Oskar Groening, 96, a former SS guard, was found guilty of being accessory to the murder of 300,000 people during his time at Auschwitz
He was sentenced to four years in jail, but argued he was unfit to serve that time
That appeal was rejected last month and he has now appealed a second time, saying the sentence will violate his right to life

By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline and Afp

Published: 20:09 GMT, 19 December 2017 | Updated: 22:29 GMT, 19 December 2017

e-mail

View
comments

A 96-year-old former Nazi SS guard dubbed the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz has appealed against his jail sentence saying it violates his 'right to life'.

Oskar Groening was sentenced to four years in jail after being found guilty in 2015 of being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people.

He has been living at home since then after lawyers argued he was unfit to serve the sentence, but that appeal was denied last month.

Oskar Groening, 96, a former SS guard dubbed the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz, has appealed against his four-year sentence for being accessory to the murder of 300,000 people

His lawyer has now applied to Germany's Constitutional Court in a last-ditch effort to keep him out of jail.

He claims that jailing Groening at such an advanced age flouts his basic rights.

'In terms of constitutional law, it should be examined if the health condition of Mr Groening allows for his basic right to life and physical integrity to be guaranteed' if he went to jail, lawyer Hans Holtermann told the DPA news agency.

The new appeal does not trigger a suspension of the sentence, meaning that Groening could be served with a notice to go to jail at any time.

Groening (pictured in the SS) is due to serve four years in jail, but his lawyer is now arguing that imprisoning him at such an advanced age violates his right to life

Groening worked as an accountant at Auschwitz, sorting and counting the money taken from those killed or used as slave labour, and shipping it back to his Nazi superiors in Berlin.

On several occasions he was also assigned to 'ramp duty', processing deportees as they arrived by rail in cattle cars.

During his trial, Groening acknowledged 'moral guilt' but said it was up to the court to rule on his legal culpability.

He had previously been cleared by German authorities after lengthy criminal probes dating back to the 1970s.

But a case was reopened against him after the legal basis for prosecuting former Nazis changed in 2011 with Germany's landmark conviction of John Demjanjuk.

Demjanjuk, a former death camp guard, was sentenced not for atrocities he was known to have committed, but on the basis that he worked at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland and had thus been a cog in the Nazis' killing machine.

Groening's trial heard testimony from several survivors of the Nazi's most infamous death camp, including Eva Kor (pictured here giving evidence)

Demjanjuk died in 2012 before his appeal could be heard, but that verdict spurred new investigations against several elderly former Nazis.

Among a handful of convictions since is that of Reinhold Hanning, found guilty of complicity in the mass murders at Auschwitz.

He died aged 95 this year, before he could serve his jail term.

A case against former SS medic Hubert Zafke collapsed in September after the court found that the 96-year-old was unfit to stand trial.

More than one million European Jews were killed at Auschwitz before it was liberated by Soviet forces. Yet of the camp's 6,500 SS personnel who survived the war, fewer than 50 were ever convicted.