The Accountant of Auschwitz

Oskar Gröning kept the record of belongings at Auschwitz: money, jewellery and valuables were separated and sent to Berlin. He killed no one with his own hands. Seventy years later, in 2015, at ninety-four, he was tried and found guilty of being an accessory to three hundred thousand murders and sentenced to four years. Survivors attended the hearings. Matthew Shoychet's documentary argues two questions around the trial: whether a small part of a system can be held legally responsible, and what a prosecution arriving this late achieves. Survivors, prosecutors, lawyers and historians speak in the film, and they do not agree. The narrative also covers the history of post-war prosecution in Germany; for years very few were convicted, and the legal threshold shifted only recently. After all his appeals were rejected, Gröning died in 2018 at ninety-six without having begun his sentence. Who it's for: Viewers of Holocaust documentary, war crimes law, and debates about historical responsibility. Who it's not for: The subject is very heavy and the archive footage is harsh. The narrative also becomes dense in legal detail in places.