96-Year-Old Auschwitz Guard Can Go To Prison Despite Age
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(JTA) — Prosecutors in the German state of Hanover say that a 96-year-old former Auschwitz guard is fit to serve a prison sentence.
Oskar Groening was convicted and sentenced in July 2015 to four years in prison for his role in the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews at the camp in Poland. A federal appeals court rejected his appeal in November.
A doctor who examined Groening found him fit to go to prison with appropriate medical care, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press. The prosecutor’s office then rejected a defense request to excuse Groening from going to jail.
Groening has remained out of prison first for the appeal and then for a decision on his fitness for prison.
A date for Groening to enter prison has not yet been set.
Groening had admitted to being tasked with gathering the money and valuables found in the baggage of murdered Jews and handing 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.
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