An accessory to 10505 murders has been found a former secretary for the SS commander at Nazi Germany’s Stutthof concentration Camp, aged 97.

Irmgard Furchner was a witness in the Nazi war crimes trial. She was present at court in Germany for over a year while the prosecutors presented their case against her.

Judge Dominik Gross delivered Furchner’s verdict Tuesday morning. The Itzehoe State Court handed Furchner a suspended sentence of two years.

He stated that the defendant was found guilty in aiding the murders in 10,505 victims, as well as five attempted murders in the Stutthof concentration camps in Poland today.

Advertisement

Prosecutors claimed she “aided, assisted and abetted the camp commanders in the systematic murder of prisoners there between June 1943 to April 1945” in her role as a stenographer in the commandant’s office and typist.

Furchner was largely unwilling to answer any questions at trial, but she said in her closing statement that it was a regret that she was there.

When she was 18 years old, the so-called “secretary to evil” began working for the commander at the Stutthof camp where over 60,000 people were killed.

Due to her age at time of the crimes, she was sentenced under juvenile laws.

Defense lawyers asked that Furchner be acquitted. They claimed the evidence did not prove beyond doubt that Furchner knew of the systematic killings at Camp Slave Camp. This meant there was no proof to support criminal liability.

After the verdict was rendered, Dr Wolf Molkentin, defense attorney, stated to Sky News that they will consider appealing “because there are certain legal issues which have not been addressed yet”.

“There were bodies transported openly through the camp”

Manfred Goldberg, a survivor of Stutthof, said that it was impossible to not know what had happened. He also refuted Furchner’s assertion that she wasn’t aware of the atrocities occurring there.

“There were corpses being carried openly through the camp.”

Sky News’ Europe correspondent SiobhanRobbins visited Stutthof to see the former secretary. She stood in her office and viewed the view out the window that overlooks the camp.

“Historians said that sick, starving, or terrified prisoners would have passed the building each day. She claimed that she had not seen any of them naked and was unaware. She hadn’t also heard the gas chambers screams, or seen the bodies outside.

“And then there was the fires. First, from the crematorium which burned 24 hours per day and then, when it couldn’t keep pace with the demand, the Nazis stacked bodies and burned them in piles outside. It would have been impossible to miss the stench, which was ghastly.

“Almost 80 years later, the lie was proven false and the guilty verdict was rendered – it is clear that justice does not have a time limit or age as a defense.

Maxi Wantzen, the public prosecutor, stated that Furchner’s case was necessary and important after the verdict. He said this to Sky News: “Even today…not only for survivors, but also for today’s generation and future generations, to remind them of what happened and that they will never forget.”

“In German law there is a rule that murder has no statute of limitations. This is something I believe it’s important to remember.

Continue reading:

Ex Nazi guard, 93, found guilty of mass murder in concentration camp

Holocaust survivors are honored during a royal tour to Stutthof concentration camps

Christoph Heubner was the executive vice-president for the International Auschwitz Committee. He stated: “It’s a healing process… Germans for a long time liked very much talking about the victims but not about those who were responsible for all of the guilt.

“It’s high time that we also talk about this in Germany. These are just a few examples. After her time in Stutthof, she has lived in Germany and is now living in the middle of the society.

“It was a human approach, looking into the old lady’s life and trying to understand her past after she moved from Stutthof into a normal life. It would have been nice if the court had looked as deeply into the lives and circumstances of survivors and people who have waited for these court cases most of their lives.

Stutthof concentration Camp

During World War II, 100,000 people were sent to the Stutthof camp.

Conditions were harsh behind the barbed-wire fencing that protected it with electrified wire.

Typhus epidemics killed many prisoners, and those who were too sick or weak to work by guards were also killed.

Stutthof is also known for its closing days when the Soviet Red Army closed in and the horrendous events that occurred as thousands of prisoners were moved under the pretence “evacuation”.

Professor Rainer Schulze is a German historian and emeritus faculty at the University of Essex. He told Sky News that they put the bodies in small boats, which were then pushed into the Baltic Sea.

“People died in those boats from the sun exposure, no water, and no food.

The final Nazi war crimes trial?

Many Nazi leaders fled to safety as chaos erupted after the Second World War ended. Others returned to their lives as normal.

Recent years have seen a lot of ex-con concentration camp guards and staff members aged in their 80s or 90s being tried for war crimes against the Nazi regime.

Professor Schulze however stated that Furchner’s trial “probably in all likelihood” would be the final Nazi war crimes trial.