The trial of a 93-year-old former Nazi SS guard, known as the "Bookkeeper of Auschwitz," is set to begin today in Germany. Oskar Groening has admitted he is "morally" guilty for being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews at the concentration camp.

Groening spoke at the beginning of his trial, and described his role of counting money confiscated from new arrivals and said he witnessed mass killings, reports BBC News. However, Groening has denied any direct role in the genocide.

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Groening served at Auschwitz between May and June 1944, when some 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought there and at least 300,000 almost immediately gassed to death, according to the BBC. If found guilty he could face three to 15 years in prison.

"I ask for forgiveness. I share morally in the guilt but whether I am guilty under criminal law, you will have to decide,'' Groening said to the court's judges. This is expected to be one of the last trials for Nazi war crimes.

Four survivors from the Auschwitz death camp faced Groening across the room. His testimony mostly described his attempts to climb the ranks to become an SS "executive," to work as a bookkeeper for the Nazis.

But there were haunting moments too; for a little while we saw the horrors of Auschwitz through his eyes.

Groening testified that when he first arrived at the notorious death camp as a 21-year-old SS guard he had been told that it was a camp was for deported Jews, and that they would be killed and disposed of.

Groening has been one of the few Germans to speak out about their role in the genocide, a decision he say he took to stop Holocaust deniers.

"I saw the gas chambers. I saw the crematoria," he told the BBC in the 2005 documentary Auschwitz: the Nazis and the "Final Solution".

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

Despite speaking out, Groening has always insisted that his role as a guard was not a crime.

"If you can describe that as guilt, then I am guilty, but not voluntarily. Legally speaking, I am innocent," he told Der Spiegel in 2005.

TagsTrial of 93-Year-Old Former Auschwitz Guard Opens in Germany, Oskar Groening, Auschwitz, Bookkeeper of Auschwitz, Nazi SS guard, Nazis, trial, War Crimes, genocide