Revisiting Auschwitz: Its Bookkeeper Has Died in Prison

Oskar Gröning, the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz,” died last week at age 96.

I pass along excerpts of his lengthy obituary in the New York Times. In doing so, I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting facts that I believe show clear guilt, and those that are mitigating. These are my judgments—the question is, how do you judge these facts? Feel free to post on FB or write privately to me at mhl@illinois.edu.

Guilt: Gröning volunteered to work in Auschwitz. While working at the death camp, he kept ledgers of money brought to Auschwitz by Jews on the pretense that they were being relocated for safety and a new life. His ledgers recorded currency taken in the form of Polish zlotys, Greek drachmas, French francs, Dutch guilders, Czech korunas, Italian lire, among others.

He led a privileged life in Auschwitz, dining on tinned sardines, bacon, vodka and rum. He admits that he knew that he received special treatment for his work.

Gröning admitted that he was present on two occasions when Jews were killed: when a camp guard smashed an abandoned baby’s head against the metal side of a truck; and when escaped Jews were cornered in a farmhouse and gassed. 

His defense? He didn’t kill; he observed the killings.

Mitigation: He was brainwashed at an early age to view Jews as enemies of the German people.

In court as a 94 year old defendant, Gröning said: “It is beyond question that I am morally complicit. This moral guilt I acknowledge here before the victims with regret and humility.”

But “as concerns guilt before the law,” he added, “you must decide.”

After Auschwitz, he never spoke of his experiences—that is, until a fellow stamp collector told Gröning that the Holocaust was a hoax. Gröning wrote a note to the man saying: “I saw everything — the gas chambers, the cremations, the selection process. One and a half million Jews were murdered in Auschwitz. I was there.”

Later, he wrote an 87-page memoir about his experiences. In 2005, he recorded nine hours of taped interviews for a BBC documentary.

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Gröning was accused as an accomplice in the murder of some 300,000 Hungarian Jews who had been transported to Auschwitz in 1944. This would have included my grandparents, aunts, and uncles. For me, his testimonials to history are more important than determining his guilt and incarcerating him. With deeply mixed emotions, I value his moral confession and bearing witness to the horrors of Auschwitz.