Former Auschwitz guard asks God for forgiveness at trial
A 94-year-old former SS sergeant who served in Auschwitz says he helped the death camp function in his role sorting cash and valuables seized from Jews after they arrived in cattle-cars.
In a statement read by his attorney, Oskar Groening told the Lueneburg state court Wednesday that his blind obedience to the Nazi system meant that he never rebelled against the killings at the camp in German-occupied Poland, the dpa news agency reported. He said: "I can only ask my God for forgiveness." Pleas are not entered in the German system. But as his trial on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder opened in April Groening said he felt a moral guilt for what he had done.
