Berlin: A former Nazi SS guard dubbed the "Bookkeeper of Auschwitz" has died aged 96 nearly three years after his conviction for being an accessory to murder, German media reported.

A spokesman of the prosecutor's office in the northern city of Hanover told AFP that Oskar Groening's lawyer had informed him of his death but he was unable to confirm it officially.

Groening worked as an accountant at Auschwitz, sorting and counting the money taken from those killed or used as slave labour, and shipping it back to his Nazi superiors in Berlin.

Prosecutors in Lunenburg, northern Germany, also allege that he hid victims' luggage away from new arrivals, to disguise the victims' fate.

He was found guilty in July 2015 of being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people at the camp and sentenced to four years in prison.

Groening, who began work at Auschwitz aged 21, admits witnessing the mass killing of Jews, but denies he was an "accomplice". He has spoken publicly about his role in the concentration camp.

Groening was born in 1921 in Lower Saxony in Germany, and his mother died when he was four, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reports. His father, a proud nationalist, joined the Stahlhelm paramilitary group after Germany's defeat in World War One. His anger at how Germany had been treated under the Treaty of Versailles increased when his textile business went bankrupt in 1929, reports the BBC.

Groening began training as a bank clerk at 17, but after war was declared, he decided he wanted to follow in his grandfathers' footsteps and join an "elite" unit in the German army. He signed up to the Waffen SS and arrived in Auschwitz in 1942.

But when the war was over - and he was released from a British prison - he did not speak of his role at Auschwitz. He lived a normal, middle-class life in Lower Saxony, where he worked at a glass-making factory until retirement.

He reportedly felt the need to speak up of his  role, after a wave of denials swept Germany that claimed that gas chambers and concentration camps did not exist. He spoke of witnessing an SS soldier murdering a baby, and how the treatment of the prisoners had "horrified" him. But he said that at the time he believed that killing Jews - including children - was the "right" thing to do.

"We were convinced by our world view that we had been betrayed... and that there was a great conspiracy of the Jews against us."

However, Groening has maintained after his revelations that he did not take part directly in the killing, and described his role as "a small cog in the gears". "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.

He was convicted although there was no evidence linking him to specific killings. Presiding Judge Franz Kompisch while finding Groening guilty said he  was part of the "machinery of death" that helped the Auschwitz camp function smoothly.

Groening's trial was considered a landmark case for Germany, where many former SS officers have walked free because there was no evidence linking them to individual deaths. German broadcaster DW says Groening will probably prove the last Nazi war criminal to have faced trial. Fewer than 50 of the estimated 6,500 Auschwitz guards who survived World War II were ever convicted.

A court doctor determined in 2017 that Groening was fit enough to be able to serve his sentence, on condition he was given appropriate nursing and medical care, but he was never jailed due to  a series of appeals after his conviction.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 13, 2018 06:43 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).