‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’, 96, dies before being jailed

By Emre Aytekin

ANKARA (AA) - A “bookkeeper” at Poland’s Auschwitz Nazi death camp died at the age of 96 before beginning of his four-year jail term, German media reported Tuesday.

German man Oskar Groning was convicted of complicity in the death of 300,000 people when he worked as an SS guard in 1944, the local reports said.

Groning died on Friday in the hospital where he was under treatment, the reports added.

He was responsible for recording money and valuables. Those who had their valuables seized were either kept hostage or killed.

Groning admitted knowing about the mass killings at the camp in southern occupied Poland but said he had no direct role in the killings.

Around 1.1 million people, mostly Jews from across Europe, were killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex between 1940 and 1945.

The case is likely to be the last trial of Nazis involved in the genocide that saw around 11 million people, including six million Jews, murdered by the regime.