We commemorated Germany's surrender in World War II on May 9. Although the horrors of war ended, the worldwide search for high-ranking Nazi and concentration camp officials began — and it continues today with the trial of former SS (Schutzstaffel) officer Oskar Groening, now age 93.

As with every Nazi war criminal I remember, Groening claims he's innocent and had nothing to do with killing anyone. Yet somehow almost 10 million victims perished in Germany's infamous camps.

Truly, whether they were guards, truck drivers or accountants, they all took part in the slaughter. The killing machine would never have operated unless every cog in the system worked perfectly.

Groening was arrested in 1945 for possible involvement in concentration camp activities. He was held by British authorities until being repatriated to Germany in 1948, where he lived a comfortable life. He's spoken out against Nazi atrocities on several occasions, including a 2005 interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. while filming a documentary. He hoped his words would help counter the anti-Holocaust movement.

German prosecutors ruled Dec. 16, 2014, that he was fit to stand trial for his participation in the operation of Nazi death camps. On April 21, in Lueneburg, Germany, Groening went on trial for 300,000 counts of accessory to murder in the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The BBC reported almost 500,000 Jews from Hungary arrived by train to be gassed and burned during his tenure. He was one of 6,500 members of the feared SS working at the camp, where it's estimated about 1.5 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and people of Slavic ethnicity were slaughtered. The trial has been painstakingly slow as the judge has called several long recesses related to Groening's health problems.

Groening admits enlisting in the SS of his own free will. He boldly affirms that he did his job with efficiency in his pursuit of becoming an SS executive bookkeeper for the Third Reich. His duties amounted to counting money while assembling items of wealth to be shipped back to Berlin to help fund the war.

In Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Patton," he describes in detail the ritual of confiscating and processing items of wealth. Groening would have been involved in operating the infamous sorting house codenamed "Canada," where prisoners sorted and searched property around the clock, often dying on the job.

Although Groening asserts he's not responsible for killing anyone, he admits to assisting in a roundup of escapees in 1942, where the captured victims were herded into a building and gassed. He speaks of their cries and screams but insists, "I did not take part."

It's inconceivable anyone could insist he did not take part when he helped secure the innocent people to be murdered!

Eleven more possible war criminals are under scrutiny by German investigators, according to news reports. The next to go on trial is 93-year-old Hilda Michnia. She is suspected of being involved in marching prisoners from Gross-Rosen to the forced labor camp at Guben where 1,400 women died along the way.

Michnia claims to be innocent, as she was just a cook. Michnia's refusal to take responsibility for her alleged actions reached the height of arrogance while telling Irish Press reporter Derek Scally that people should be ashamed of themselves for dredging up her past.

Because Germany has no statute of limitations for Nazi war criminals, the search will continue. With Israel's help, hundreds of criminals have been brought to justice, including the infamous Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbie.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel posed the question in 1986 in his acceptance speech:

"I remember: it happened yesterday, or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.

"I remember he asked his father: "Can this be true? This is the 20th century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?"

sctimes.com