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Auschwitz Bookkeeper Begs For 'Forgiveness'

The man known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz" has asked for forgiveness on the opening day of his trial in Germany.

Oskar Groening, 93, stands accused of being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people at the Nazi death camp during the Second World War.

Addressing the courtroom, which was packed with Holocaust survivors and victims' relatives, Groening acknowledged he knew about the killings.

"For me there's no question that I share moral guilt ... I ask for forgiveness," he said.

"You have to decide on my legal culpability," he told the judges.

Groening was 21 years old and by his own admission an enthusiastic Nazi when he was sent to work at Auschwitz in 1942.

He was responsible for collecting deportees' belongings after they arrived at the Nazi concentration camp.

His job involved inspecting the luggage and removing any bank notes. He then made sure the money was sent to SS offices in Berlin to help the war effort.

He is facing charges related to a period between May and July 1944 when 137 trains carrying around 425,000 Jews arrived at Auschwitz from Hungary.

At least 300,000 were sent straight to the gas chambers, according to an 85-page indictment.

About 70 Holocaust survivors and victims' relatives were in court as Groening arrived.

The case is unusual as Groening, unlike many other SS men and women at the death camps, was not directly involved in the killing of deportees.

He has spoken openly about his time working at Auschwitz in the past in order, he says, to counter Holocaust denial.

Groening describes himself as a "small cog in the wheel" of the Nazi war machine and sees himself as legally innocent.

But Hanover prosecutors say Groening's actions "helped the NS (Nazi) regime financially and supported its systematic killing campaign".

Groening's lawyer Hans Holtermann says his client's actions do not make him an accessory to murder and, until recently, the German justice system agreed with him.

In 1985, German prosecutors chose not to pursue a case against Groening and dozens of other concentration camp workers.

At the time they decided there was no causal link between their actions and the killings that took place at Auschwitz.

A subsequent request for prosecution was again denied only two years ago.

But the prosecutors in Hanover disagree and have pursued the case, emboldened by the trial of Ivan Demjanjuk in 2011.

Demjanjuk was convicted of being an accessory to mass murder despite there being no evidence of him having committed a specific crime while working at the Sobibor camp.

Groening's trial could be the last major Holocaust case as few Nazis suspected of committing crimes are still alive.

Eva Pusztai-Fahidi, a survivor from Budapest, told a news conference the trial was "one of the most important events in my life".

Hedy Bohm, a survivor from New York, said she wanted to see Groening declared guilty but was not seeking vengeance.

"Those who commit crimes today must know they will be held responsible in the future," she said.

"And never again will they be able to just plead: 'I'm a cog in the machinery, I didn't kill.'"