The Provincial Court of Itzehoe, Germany, this Tuesday (20) sentenced a 97-year-old woman who was a secretary at the Nazi concentration camp Stutthof, Poland, to two years of probation, finding her guilty of complicity in the murder. of over 10,500 prisoners.
After a total of 40 days of trial, the judge convicted the defendant, Irmgard Furchner, of aiding and abetting murder in more than 10,505 cases, as well as aiding and abetting attempted murder in five other cases, according to the regional public television broadcaster “NDR”.
Of the 14 witnesses who participated in the trial, eight are survivors of the Stutthof concentration camp.
The trial, which had to be postponed after the accused fled, began on October 19 last year.
Between March and April it was interrupted because of Furchner’s illness, and both survivors and their lawyers feared that she would not return to court. However, the elderly woman recovered, and the trial, the first of its kind against a civil servant, was able to resume on April 26.
The defendant worked between June 1943 and April 1945, aged 18 and 19, as a stenographer and typist for the commandant at the Nazi camp at Stutthof, located near Gdansk, Poland.
Because of his youth at the time of the fact, the prosecutor demanded a sentence based on the law governing the criminal responsibility of minors, which, depending on the case, is applied until the defendant is 21 years of age.
The Public Ministry expressed its conviction that, through his work, Furchner contributed to ensuring the operation of the camp and was an important support for the camp commander and his assistants.
About 65,000 prisoners died in the Stutthof concentration camp during World War II, including many Jews, mainly from exhaustion and disease.
At least 200 prisoners were killed by intoxication with the pesticide Zyklon B in the gas chamber or inside a closed train carriage, and another 30 were shot in the head.
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