Biography: Oskar Gröning

Oskar Gröning was born on June 10, 1921 in Nienburg an der Weser. After training as a bank clerk he joined the Nazi Party and in 1940 volunteered for the Waffen-SS. He first worked in the paymaster’s office of the SS at the Dachau concentration camp before his transfer to the administration of prisoner property at Auschwitz. Here Gröning was in charge of sorting the monies and belongings taken from the murdered.

As a court witness and in interviews Gröning never denied the Holocaust, instead testifying to the systematic murdering of European Jews. After two criminal proceedings against him were discontinued, Gröning was finally convicted of accessory to murder on July 15, 2012 by the Lüneberg District Court. The decision was based on considering his role in Auschwitz to have contributed to the running of the camp and the machinery of extermination. The German Federal Court of Justice confirmed the verdict in 2016. Gröning died on March 9, 2018 before he began his prison sentence.