Nazi Camp Secretary, 96, Appears In Court To Face Over 11,000 Counts Of Accessory To Murder

A former Nazi concentration camp secretary who went on the run has appeared in court in Germany.

Irmgard Furchner worked as a secretary for the Stutthof concentration camp's SS commander when she was 18-years-old and is accused of 11,412 counts of accessory to murder.

The 96-year-old was due to face trial on 30 September, but she left her home in Hamburg in a taxi before it was due to commence.

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She was picked up by police later that day and taken into custody.

Court spokesperson Frederike Milhoffer said given the woman's age and condition, she had not been expected to 'actively evade the trial'.

Today (Tuesday 19 October), she appeared before a judge in the northern town of Itzehoe, and the charges were read.

She was pushed into the courtroom in a wheelchair and kept her face concealed behind a scarf, mask and glasses.

Despite being a nonagenarian, she is being tried in juvenile court because she was under 21 at the time of the alleged crimes.

Prosecutors claim Furchner was part of the apparatus that helped the Nazi camp in occupied Poland function during the Second World War more than 75 years ago.

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They say she 'aided and abetted those in charge of the camp in the systematic killing of those imprisoned there between June 1943 and April 1945 in her function as a stenographer and typist in the camp commandant's office'.

Defence lawyer Wolf Molkentin told Der Spiegel magazine that the trial would centre on whether the 96-year-old had knowledge of the atrocities that happened at the camp.

He said: "My client worked in the midst of SS men who were experienced in violence - however, does that mean she shared their state of knowledge? That is not necessarily obvious."

Germany media has reported that Furchner had been questioned as a witness in previous Nazi trials and said at the time the former SS commandant of Stutthof, Paul Werner Hoppe, dictated daily letters and radio messages to her.

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Furchner is also reported to have testified that she was not aware of the killings that occurred at the camp while she worked there.

Around 6 million Jewish people were murdered between 1941 and 1945 across German-occupied Europe - which was around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.

Others incarcerated at the numerous concentration camps included political prisoners, accused criminals, people suspected of homosexual activity and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Topics: World News, Germany, crime, Nazi

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

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