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94 year old former Auschwitz guard goes on trial in Germany Former Auschwitz guard, 94, goes on trial in Germany
(about 4 hours later)
DETMOLD, Germany — A 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard went on trial Thursday on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder in western Germany, accused of serving in the death camp at a time when hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were gassed. DETMOLD, Germany — A 94-year-old former SS sergeant went on trial Thursday in western Germany on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder, based on accusations that he served as a guard in the Auschwitz death camp as hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews and others were gassed to death there.
Former SS Sgt. Reinhold Hanning maintains that he served in a part of the Auschwitz camp complex where no gassings were taking place. Prosecutors argue that all guards helped the camp function, and that during the so-called “Hungarian action” in 1944 — when hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were shipped to the camp — almost all were called upon to help deal with the vast numbers of people arriving at the killing complex in Nazi-occupied Poland. Reinhold Hanning seemed in good condition for his age, walking into the court in the city of Detmold without even the help of a cane and appearing to listen attentively as the indictment against him was read aloud.
The trial in Detmold was moved to the city’s chamber of industry and commerce to accommodate the large number of observers and reporters. There was also a heavy police presence in the city. No pleas are entered in the German system. Hanning, who ran a local dairy after the war until he retired in 1984, declined to give an opening statement to the court.
Leon Schwarzbaum, a 94-year-old Auschwitz survivor from Berlin, was scheduled to testify Thursday, the opening day of the trial. It is unclear whether Hanning will first make a statement. He showed no reaction as the first witness, Leon Schwarzbaum, a 94-year-old Auschwitz survivor, read moving testimony about his own experiences, then looked directly at Hanning and made an emotional plea.
Schwarzbaum, who was taken to the camp in 1943, told The Associated Press ahead of the trial that even though higher-ranking Nazis had escaped punishment in the decades after the war, going ahead with Hanning’s prosecution was the right thing to do. “Mr. Hanning, we are about the same age and we will both soon be before the highest court,” Schwarzbaum said, his voice quavering and hands trembling. “Speak here about what you and your comrades did!”
“I think the people responsible for helping make the whole apparatus function, even if they were a tiny gear in the machine, should be convicted,” he said. The trial is one of four expected this year against two other former SS men and one woman alleged to have served in Auschwitz. The 11th-hour prosecutions come after a new precedent was set in 2011, when former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk became the first person to be convicted in Germany solely for serving as a death camp guard, with no evidence of involvement in a specific killing.
The trial for Hanning, a retiree from a town near the western city of Detmold, is one of the latest that follow a precedent set in 2011, when former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk became the first person to be convicted in Germany solely for serving as a camp guard, with no evidence of involvement in a specific killing. Prosecutors successfully argued in the Demjanjuk case that simply serving in a death camp, and thus helping it operate, was enough to convict someone of accessory to the murders committed there. Although Demjanjuk always denied serving at the death camp and died before his appeal could be heard, prosecutors last year successfully convicted SS sergeant Oskar Groening, who served in Auschwitz, on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder using the same reasoning.
Hanning’s attorney, Johannes Salmen, says that his client acknowledges serving at the Auschwitz I part of the camp complex in Nazi-occupied Poland, but denies serving at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau section, where most of the 1.1 million victims were killed. Hanning admitted to investigators when first questioned that he had served in the Auschwitz I part of the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, but denied serving at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau section, where most of the 1.1 million victims were killed.
Prosecutor Andreas Brendel told the AP, however, that guards in the main camp were also used as on-call guards to augment those in Birkenau when trainloads of Jews were brought in. As the trial opened, however, his attorneys filed a motion asking to exclude that statement, saying that Hanning had been “surprised” when authorities showed up at his house and wasn’t fully aware he was under investigation. It wasn’t clear when the judges would rule on the motion. His attorney, Andreas Scharmer, would not say whether the defense was planning to try and argue that Hanning did not serve in the camp at all if his statement was excluded.
“We believe that these auxiliaries were used in particular during the so-called Hungarian action in support of Birkenau,” he said. Prosecutor Andreas Brendel told The Associated Press after the hearing that there was also other evidence that Hanning was there, including SS company lists.
Reading the indictment, Brendel told the court that Hanning served in two different SS Death’s Head companies in Auschwitz as a guard. He said those companies were used to guard prisoners used as slave laborers outside the camp, and also were called to Birkenau to help with the tens of thousands being brought in during the so-called “Hungarian action” in 1944 and unloaded from trains onto a ramp.
On the ramp, Nazis stripped the prisoners of their possessions and sorted them into groups: those who would be immediately taken to the gas chambers and those fit enough to be used as slave labor, and likely worked to death.
“The decision over life and death lay with the SS men on the ramp,” Brendel said.
Doctors have advised that the trial sessions can run no longer than two hours, in deference to Hanning’s age and health.
Schwarzbaum, one of about 40 Auschwitz survivors or their relatives who have joined the trial as co-plaintiffs as allowed under German law, had his testimony cut short before he could finish answering questions. He’s due to take the stand again when the trial resumes Friday.
After the proceedings, he told the AP his main hope for the trial is that Hanning will tell his story so the world will better know what happened in Auschwitz and why SS guards did what they did.
“He’s an old man,” Schwarzbaum said. “He should tell the truth.”
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.