Germany Convicts 97-Year-Old Woman Of Nazi War Crimes

Irmgard Furchner reportedly received a two-year suspended sentence from the district court in the town of Itzehoe in the north. She was sentenced under juvenile law because, at the time of the crimes, she was only 18 years old.

According to the NDR broadcaster and other media on Tuesday, a German court found a 97-year-old woman guilty of contributing to the killing of more than 11,000 people while she was employed as a typist in a Nazi concentration camp during World War Two.

According to the report, Irmgard Furchner was given a two-year suspended sentence by the district court in the northern town of Itzehoe. Due to the fact that she was only 18 years old when the crimes were committed, she received a sentence under juvenile law. From 1943 to 1945, she worked at the Stutthof concentration camp.

97-Year-Old Woman Convicted Of Nazi War Crimes

In September 2021, a few hours before the start of her trial, she left the Quickborn retirement home where she was a resident and took a cab to the Norderstedt Mitte subway station. Furchner was promptly apprehended and taken into custody after the criminal chamber's president issued a warrant for her arrest. She was conditionally released from pretrial detention five days later. The trial was postponed until October 19, 2021.

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She reportedly had previously stated that she would not be attending her trial because it was "degrading," and she had asked the judge not to anticipate her doing so. But in a criminal trial, the defendant's presence is essential. However, due to her direct reporting to the camp commander and handling of correspondence pertaining to Stutthof detainees, Furchner was also granted the right to stand trial as a result of that decision.

It took her 40 days to finally speak up during the trial and apologise to the judge for everything that had happened. She said, "I can only say that I regret being in Stutthof at the time."

Approximately 65,000 people perished at Stutthof near Gdansk in present-day Poland from starvation, illness, or the gas chamber. They included Jewish people who were victims of the Nazis' extermination programme as well as prisoners of war.