To Look a Nazi in the Eye

The true story of nineteen-year-old Jordana Lebowitz’s experience attending the war criminal trial of Oskar Groening. Groening worked at the Auschwitz concentration camp and became known as the “bookkeeper of Auschwitz”. In 2015 he stood trial in Germany for being complicit in the deaths of more than 300,000 Jews. A granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Jordana knew a great deal about the Holocaust and had travelled to Europe to visit Auschwitz. But she was not prepared for what she would see and hear at Oscar Groening’s trial, including how such an ordinary seeming man – who at first glance reminded her of grandfather – could be part of such despicable cruelty. Listening to Groening’s testimony and to the Holocaust survivors who came to testify against him, Jordana felt the weight of being witness to history – a history that we need to remember now more than ever.