Auschwitz Survivors Testify at Former SS Sergeant’s Trial

94-year-old former SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp Reinhold Hanning waits for the start of his trial in Detmold, Germany, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. Hanning faces trial for 170,000 counts of accessory to murder, the first of up to four cases being brought to court this year by German prosecutors to punish Nazi war crimes. Bernd Thissen/Pool Photo via AP

 

DETMOLD, Germany—Three Holocaust survivors testified Friday about the horrors they experienced at the Auschwitz the death camp, on the second day of the trial of a former SS sergeant on 170,000 counts of accessory to murder.

Reinhold Hanning, 94, sat only a few meters (yards) from the witnesses, but showed no emotion as they told of crematoria chimneys belching flames, naked prisoners being taken to the gas chambers, and seeing people being shot.

Prosecutors say Hanning told them that he was a guard at Auschwitz but denied taking part in any executions.

Justin Sonder, the youngest of the witnesses at 90, arrived at Auschwitz at age 17 and was selected to be a slave laborer for the IG Farben company, rather than sent directly to the gas chambers.

94-year-old former SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp Reinhold Hanning, right, stands next to his lawyer Andreas Scharmer, center, during his trial in Detmold, Germany, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016. Hanning faces trial for 170,000 counts of accessory to murder, the first of up to four cases being brought to court this year by German prosecutors to punish Nazi war crimes. At left is Auschwitz survivor Leon Schwarzbaum. Bernd Thissen/Pool Photo via AP