Fewer than 50 former SS personnel who served at Auschwitz, of the 6,500 who survived the war, have been tried, and only five active cases remain; most cases were closed because of a lack of evidence or the death or inability of the defendant to stand trial.
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“It is not true that you had no choice; you could have asked to be transferred to the war front”, Ms Grudda told Hanning as she read out the verdict.
Former SS sergeant Reinhold Hanning, who served as a guard at Auschwitz, sits in the courtroom in Detmold on Friday.
The case caps what is expected to be one of the last Holocaust trials.
“You were in Auschwitz for two and a half years, performed an important function….”
This case is historical because of the small amount of people who have been prosecuted.
The World Jewish Congress said in a statement that Hanning “got what he deserved”.
“He was part of a merciless killing machine”.
He added how he did not want Hanning to go to prison and was happy he apologised, but had hoped he would provide more details about his time in Auschwitz for the sake of educating younger generations.
But now several camp guards are being put on trial for being an accessory to murder, with the thinking being that they have culpability even if they did not directly kill or torture.
He admitted being “silent all my life” about the atrocities because he felt deep shame, and had never spoken a word about it to his wife, children or grandchildren.
He said: “They were screaming, their arms were flailing around and the chimneys were spewing fire as the smell of burning flesh hung over everything”.
“I am ashamed that I let this injustice happen and have done nothing to prevent it”. “It was just like Dante’s Inferno”, Leon Schwarzbaum told a packed courtroom in Detmold, Germany, according to The Guardian.
Around 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex between 1940 and 1945.
On Friday, it was announced that Hanning had been convicted of 170,000 counts of accessory to murder.
The chief prosecutor had recommended six years in prison while the defending attorneys wanted Hanning released, claiming that there was no proof that Hanning had committed individual acts of murder.
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The so-called “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz” was convicted in the northern German city of Lueneburg for his role at the camp following testimony that he presided over prisoners’ belongings and collected their money before they were marched to their death in gas chambers.
