Former Nazi Guard Sentenced to 5 Years

A former guard at the Auschwitz death camp has been sentenced to five years in jail after a four month trial, a court in Germany has ruled.

Reinhold Hanning, 94, who was an SS guard at Auschwitz from 1942 to 1944, was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people.

Many Holocaust survivors gave testimony at the beginning of the trial. Hanning denied complicity but admitted to being aware of the murders as they were carried out. He apologized to the court.

"It disturbs me deeply that I was part of such a criminal organization," Hanning told the court in April. "I am ashamed that I saw injustice and never did anything about it and I apologize for my actions."

Hanning's lawyers had called for an acquittal while prosecutors wanted a six-year sentence. Prosecutors argued that he bared some responsibility for the Holocaust due to his presence at the death camp where 1.1 million were killed.

This case is historical because of the small amount of people who have been prosecuted. According to the BBC, only 800 out of 6,000 people who worked at the camp have been brought to trial.