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| Trial of Reinhold Hanning, Ex-Auschwitz Guard, Opens in Germany | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| BERLIN — Reinhold Hanning, a 94-year-old former Nazi charged with being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people who perished at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland, went on trial on Thursday in a German court. | |
| Mr. Hanning served as an SS sergeant at the camp, and he is accused of having met Jewish prisoners as they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau on overcrowded rail cars. | Mr. Hanning served as an SS sergeant at the camp, and he is accused of having met Jewish prisoners as they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau on overcrowded rail cars. |
| The German authorities are making a renewed push to bring elderly war criminals to justice, and Mr. Hanning is the first to face trial as part of that effort. | |
| He has admitted that he served at the camp in 1943 and 1944, but he has insisted that he was only a guard, that he did not harm anyone and that he was not aware of the existence of gas chambers. | He has admitted that he served at the camp in 1943 and 1944, but he has insisted that he was only a guard, that he did not harm anyone and that he was not aware of the existence of gas chambers. |
| Prosecutors have based their argument and the number of deaths on information gleaned from meticulous records the Nazis kept, which showed the large-scale operation that sent hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to the camp. | Prosecutors have based their argument and the number of deaths on information gleaned from meticulous records the Nazis kept, which showed the large-scale operation that sent hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to the camp. |
| The amount of time Mr. Hanning served at Auschwitz “indicates that he must have been aware of the killings with which we have charged him,” Andreas Brendel, the state prosecutor in Detmold, where the trial is being held, told the public broadcaster ARD. | The amount of time Mr. Hanning served at Auschwitz “indicates that he must have been aware of the killings with which we have charged him,” Andreas Brendel, the state prosecutor in Detmold, where the trial is being held, told the public broadcaster ARD. |
| The legal interpretation of the law shifted after the conviction in Germany in 2011 of John Demjanjuk, a former autoworker in Ohio who was a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. With that ruling, service in any capacity at an extermination camp is sufficient grounds to open an investigation on suspicion of accessory to murder. | The legal interpretation of the law shifted after the conviction in Germany in 2011 of John Demjanjuk, a former autoworker in Ohio who was a guard at the Sobibor concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. With that ruling, service in any capacity at an extermination camp is sufficient grounds to open an investigation on suspicion of accessory to murder. |
| In July, a court in Lüneburg, Germany, found another former SS soldier, Oskar Gröning, who was 94 at the time, guilty of complicity in the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews during his time at Auschwitz. | In July, a court in Lüneburg, Germany, found another former SS soldier, Oskar Gröning, who was 94 at the time, guilty of complicity in the murder of 300,000 Hungarian Jews during his time at Auschwitz. |
| Several survivors of Auschwitz, all of them well into their 90s, are expected to testify against Mr. Hanning. The judge has scheduled 12 sessions, which must be limited to two hours a day because of the defendant’s fragile health. | Several survivors of Auschwitz, all of them well into their 90s, are expected to testify against Mr. Hanning. The judge has scheduled 12 sessions, which must be limited to two hours a day because of the defendant’s fragile health. |