Germany Sentences 94-Year-Old Former Auschwitz Guard

Hanning joined the Hitler Youth 1934, joined the Waffen SS in 1942 and was posted in 1942 to Auschwitz. He said he was ashamed that he was aware Jews were being killed but did nothing to try to stop it.

But the legal basis for prosecuting former Nazis changed in 2011 with Germany's landmark conviction of former death camp guard John Demjanjuk.

During the trial, Hanning's lawyers had argued that he had never personally killed or beaten anyone.

Witness Angela Orosz, who was born in Auschwitz, shows a photo of her parents during Hanning's trial.

"You spent almost two and half years in Auschwitz and therefore you helped in the mass murder", said Judge Anke Grudda during sentencing, according to CNN Affiliate ARD. She also confronted Hanning directly when he refused to speak throughout the trial.

"Anyone who had the opportunity to hear the testimony of the co-plaintiffs can answer the question of importance of such a trial", she said. "Tell us! Tell us!" That's the number of Hungarian Jewish victims recorded in the camp's transportation logs during Hanning's service.

He had faced a maximum of 15 years. "I would like to ask you to tell the historical truth here, just as I am".

Hanning could be one of the last Nazi officials involved in the Holocaust to be trialled.

After the trial was underway, Hanning made a surprise statement in April to "apologize wholeheartedly" for his role in the Holocaust, the Guardian reported at the time. "I deeply regret having been part of a criminal organisation responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people and destruction of countless families", Hanning said to a packed courtroom. "I am ashamed that I saw injustice and never did anything about it and I apologize for my actions".

The Nazis killed about 1.1 million people - mostly Jews - at Auschwitz in occupied southern Poland.

Besides Hanning, one other man and one woman in their 90s are accused of being accessories to the mass murder at Auschwitz.

Hanning was convicted of accessory to murder of 170,000 prisoners at Auschwitz.

The chief prosecutor had recommended six years in prison while the defending attorneys wanted Hanning released, claiming that there was no proof that Hanning had committed individual acts of murder.

The verdict came after a trial lasting almost four months in the western German city of Detmold.

Defendant Reinhold Hanning, a 94-year-old former guard at Auschwitz death camp, arrives in a courtroom before the continuation of his trial in Detmold, Germany, May 20, 2016.