A former SS guard, known as the “book-keeper of Auschwitz”, faces trial today, charged with contributing to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews at the Nazi concentration camp.

More than 50 Holocaust survivors and relatives of victims have travelled to the north German city of Lueneburg to witness the case against Oskar Groening, now aged 93.

His charges relate to the period between May and July 1944, when 425,000 people were sent to Auschwitz and at least 300,000 were gassed to death.

Over the years, Groening has acknowledged working at Auschwitz, but has denied being directly responsible for any killing.

His defence has previously been accepted, but since 2011 German courts have allowed prosecutors to charge people with complicity in the Holocaust even without any direct evidence that they committed murder.

Groening has previously said of his time at Auschwitz: “Down the years, I have heard the cries of the dead in my dreams and in every waking moment. I will never be free of them.”