Posted on 11/28/16
| News Source: providencejournal.com
BERLIN (AP) — A German federal court said Monday that it has thrown out the appeal a 95-year-old former Auschwitz death camp guard against his conviction for being an accessory to murder.
The decision to uphold Oskar Groening's conviction sets an important precedent for German prosecutors' efforts to pursue further suspects who served at Nazi death camps and other Holocaust perpetrators.
Groening was convicted in July 2015 of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 Jews and sentenced by a court in Lueneburg to four years in prison.
Groening testified at his trial that he oversaw the collection of prisoners' belongings and ensured valuables and cash were separated to be sent to Berlin. He said he witnessed individual atrocities, but did not acknowledge participating in any crimes.
Presiding Judge Franz Kompisch ruled last year, however, that Groening was part of the "machinery of death," helping the camp function and also collecting money stolen from the victims to help the Nazi cause, and could thus be convicted of accessory to the murders committed there.
In throwing out Groening's appeal, the Federal Court of Justice noted his responsibilities had included keeping watch on the inmates and preventing resistance or attempts to flee by force.
It also rejected appeals from several survivors and their relatives who had joined the trial as co-plaintiffs, as is allowed under German law, and had sought a tougher conviction.
It is the first time an appeals court has ruled on a conviction obtained under the logic that...read more at Providence Journal