Photo Gallery An Auschwitz Guard Talks
Jakob W. was forced to serve as a guard in watchtowers like this at the age of 19 in the Auschwitz concentration camp, the site of the most horrific crimes of World War II.
In this picture, blurred and pixilated to protect his identity, Jakob W., 91, is sitting in his living room. Prosecutors recently dropped accomplice to murder charges against the former camp guard, a member of the German ethnic minority in Yugoslavia who had been forcefully conscripted after the Nazis invaded.
This image shows Jakob W. as a student in Belgrade in 1941. He says he was sent to Auschwitz by chance. He says conscripts were seated according to last name on a train in Vienna. "S" to "Z" had to sit in the last car and were sent to Auschwitz.
Here, the infamous and cynical "Work Will Set You Free" sign is shown at the entrance to Auschwitz. When asked by SPIEGEL if he felt a sense of moral guilt, Jakob W. said he didn't. "No," he says. "I spoke to them (the Jews) in a friendly manner; I never hit, kicked or killed any. I do not feel like a criminal just because I had to guard them. Germany had invaded Yugoslavia and that was a crime against humanity and international law."
