A German federal court is set to deliver its verdict on Tuesday regarding the appeal of a 99-year-old woman who was convicted of being an accessory to over 10,000 murders during her time as a secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp in World War II.
The woman, identified as Irmgard Furchner, appealed her conviction after being found guilty by a state court in Itzehoe, northern Germany, in December 2022. She was accused of aiding the functioning of the camp near Danzig, now Gdansk, Poland.
The state court sentenced Furchner to a two-year suspended term for her role as an accessory to murder in 10,505 cases and an accessory to attempted murder in five cases.
During a recent hearing at the Federal Court of Justice in Leipzig, Furchner's defense lawyers raised doubts about her involvement in the crimes committed by the camp's commander and other senior officials, as well as her awareness of the atrocities at Stutthof.
The Itzehoe court stated that Furchner, through her work as a stenographer at the camp from 1943 to 1945, knowingly supported the killing of thousands of prisoners through gassings, harsh conditions, transportation to Auschwitz, and death marches.
Prosecutors noted that Furchner's trial may be one of the last of its kind, given the advanced age of suspects linked to Nazi-era crimes. However, three similar cases are reportedly pending in various parts of Germany.
The case against Furchner is part of a series of trials following a precedent set in 2011 with the conviction of John Demjanjuk, a former Ohio autoworker, as an accessory to murder at the Sobibor death camp. Demjanjuk passed away before his appeal could be heard.
German courts have shifted towards convicting individuals as accessories to murder based on their role in enabling the functioning of concentration camps, rather than requiring direct evidence of involvement in specific killings.
Stutthof, initially a collection point for Jews and non-Jewish Poles, later became a labor camp where tens of thousands perished, including Jews from ghettos and Polish civilians. The camp also held political prisoners, alleged criminals, homosexuals, and Jehovah's Witnesses.
Over 60,000 individuals lost their lives at Stutthof, reflecting the tragic legacy of Nazi atrocities during World War II.
