Oskar Groening :"The bookkeeper of Auschwitz" on Trial!

Oskar Groening “The Bookkeeper of Auschwitz”


I am currently enrolled in “The History of World War II”, a class at Granite State College. I have really enjoyed the class so far, I find great value in learning about our history, not only as a country, but as a member of the human race. It is important the we can look back and learned from our mistakes as well as our past success. When people, of the United States at least, look back at World War II they see a battle between good and evil. The Allied Nations vs. The Axis of Evil. The thing I have come to learn from this class is that there was much more going on behind the scenes that the average person knows.

In the past few weeks, it seems, the past has caught up with the present. The number of survivors from the WWII era is getting smaller and smaller. This has caused, among other things, a push to make sure the last of those involved with some of the more atrocious acts be punished. the most prevalent of these is the case of Oskar Groening.

Oskar Groening is being put on trial for his involvement as a guard at Auschwitz. He is known as the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz” and was responsible for rounding up all the banknotes and money from the prisoners as well as searching their luggage and hiding it out of site of the other incoming prisoners. He has openly admitted to being “morally guilty” but that he was just a small cog in a much bigger machine. He has gone as far as stating that he requested a transfer after he found out what was happening, but he was denied. Now he is being charged with 300,000 counts of murder.

I understand the need to punish people for crimes committed but I am unsure how I feel about this case. Mr. Groening is 93 years old, is he even the same person he was 70 plus years ago? Has too much time passed at this point for this trial to be effective? Of course the victims and victims families want to see anyone involved with these acts of evil punished, but what exactly are we accomplishing with the 93 year old man? He has been very open with his involvement and has shown remorse. Should people be trial due to moral guilt? What other precedents for cases will this trial open up? Was he just following orders, and it is known that anyone who was against the Nazis at the time, was eliminated. Should he have risked his own life to get away from what was happening?
I do not normally get into discussions about politics, but this is very interesting as I feel the consequences of this trials could be far reaching. My view, with the current information I have, is my “opinion” on the current situation and I would like to see how everyone else feels about this. Again, I think this is a very important trial, what do you think? Does anyone have any more information on this? Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from everyone!