soul

of blessed memory

continued from page 42

Auschwitz Guard, 96, Must Serve Prison Sentence

(JTA) — Germany’s highest court
has ruled that a 96-year-old former
Auschwitz guard should serve his pris-
on sentence for his role in the murder
of 300,000 Hungarian Jews at the con-
centration camp.
Oskar Groening was convicted and
sentenced in July 2015 to four years
in jail for his role in the murder of
300,000 Hungarian Jews at the concen-
tration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

A federal appeals court rejected his
appeal a year ago. He had remained
free while waiting for a determination
of his fitness to serve time in prison
after requesting that the sentence be
suspended.
After a regional appeals court in
November ruled that Groening could
receive the care he needs due to his
advanced age in prison, attorneys for
the former Nazi guard challenged his

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prison sentence to the constitutional
court in Germany, arguing that it vio-
lates his “right to life.”
The constitutional court, the coun-
try’s highest court, on Friday rejected
Groening’s appeal, ruling that he
could receive appropriate health care
in prison and that his jail sentence
could be “interrupted” should there be
a change in the nonagenarian’s health.
“The high age of the applicant is
in itself not sufficient to refrain from
enforcing the criminal penalty,” said
the court.
The court also noted that the sever-
ity of the crime is “something that
lends particular weight to the enforce-
ment of the punishment.”
Groening, nicknamed the
“Bookkeeper of Auschwitz,” had admit-
ted to being tasked with gathering
the money and valuables found in the
baggage of murdered Jews and hand-
ing it over to his superiors for transfer
to Berlin. He said he had guarded
luggage on the Auschwitz arrival and
selection ramp two or three times in
the summer of 1944.
During the trial, Groening asked for
forgiveness while acknowledging that

only the courts could decide when it
came to criminal guilt.
Groening was held in a British
prison until 1948. He eventually found
work as a payroll clerk in a factory.
The first investigations of Groening
took place in 1977, but it was only
after the conviction of Sobibor guard
John Demjanjuk in 2011 that the
courts were emboldened to try camp
guards on charges of complicity in
murder. •

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