Inspecting luggage and collecting up bank notes, which he shipped to Berlin, was also part of his job.
Groening was convicted by a court in Germany, following a trial at which he pleaded for forgiveness.
Holocaust survivors and the relatives of victims attended the four-month trial, where Groening admitted that he had known about the killings, describing himself as a ’small cog in the wheel’ of the Nazi regime.
According to reports, Groening didn’t deny serving at the camp and accepted moral guilt for his crimes.
Telling everyone that he was “very sorry”, he said: “No one should have taken part in Auschwitz.
“I know that. I sincerely regret not having lived up to this realisation earlier and more consistently.”
Judge Franz Kompisch told Groening that, despite having taken a ‘safe desk job’ at Auschwitz, he was "guilty of accessory to murder in 300,000 legally connected cases’ of deported Jews who were sent to the gas chambers in 1944."
He has now been sentenced to four years in prison, making it very likely that he will die behind bars.
This case could possibly be the last Holocaust trail as very few Nazi suspects are still alive.
Written by Abigail Wilson.