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Former Auschwitz bookkeeper gets four years in jail

Oskar Groening, 94, who collected money and belongings taken from the death camp prisoners in 1944, admitted his moral guilt when his trial began in April

Oskar Groening EPA/TOBIAS SCHWARZ / POOL

Oskar Groening

© EPA/TOBIAS SCHWARZ / POOL

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International Day of Fascist Concentration Camps Prisoners Liberation

BERLIN, July 15. /TASS/. A court in Germany found on Wednesday a former Auschwitz death camp bookkeeper guilty of accessory to the murder of 300,000 inmates and sentenced him to four years in prison.

Oskar Groening, 94, who collected money and belongings taken from the death camp prisoners in 1944, admitted his moral guilt when his trial began in April.

Prosecutors sought a three and a half year sentence for Groening while his lawyers said he should be acquitted as he had not killed anyone while working at the death camp.

Groening worked at Auschwitz for some two years but the charges against him related to the period between May and July 1944 when 137 trains brought some 425,000 Jews from Hungary to the death. At least 300,000 of them were immediately sent to gas chambers.

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