Former Auschwitz guard, 96, fit enough for prison, German court rules

According to Groening, who has publicly admitted his role at Auschwitz, he came to the camp in 1942 as a committed Nazi, but was so horrified at what he saw happening there that he attempted on three occasions to be transferred to the front line, a transfer which was finally granted in 1944.

Although he did not take part in any of the actual murders at the camp, he has described himself as “morally guilty”.

In a 2005 BBC documentary he said: “I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematoria.

“I was on the ramp when the selections [for the gas chambers] took place.”

In an interview with Bild, the German magazine, he said that decades later he could still hear the screams from the gas chambers.