Former Nazi concentration camp secretary sentenced for complicity in 10,000 murders 

A 97-year-old woman was convicted by a German court on Tuesday over her involvement in more than 10,000 murders when she worked as the secretary of a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Irmgard Furchner, former secretary to the SS commander of the Nazi’s Stutthof concentration camp, was accused of being part of the apparatus that killed thousands of people. 

The Itzehoe state court in northern Germany gave her a two-year suspended sentence for being involved in the murder of 10,505 individuals and an accessory to murder in five cases. Furchner was tried in juvenile court because she was 18 and 19 at the time of the crimes. 

According to the judges, Furchner “knew and, through her work as a stenographer in the commandant’s office of the Stutthof concentration camp from June 1, 1943, to April 1, 1945, deliberately supported the fact that 10,505 prisoners were cruelly killed by gassings, by hostile conditions in the camp.”

“The promotion of these acts by the accused took place through the completion of paperwork” in the camp commander’s office, a court statement said. “This activity was necessary for the organization of the camp and the execution of the cruel, systematic acts of killing.”

The defense lawyers asked that Furchner be acquitted, arguing that the evidence didn’t indicate that she knew about the systematic killings at the camp. 

However, presiding Judge Dominik Gross said it was “simply beyond all imagination” that she didn't know about the killings at Stutthof. He added that she could see the prisoners and the crematorium from her office. 

During her closing statements, Furchner said she was sorry and regretted having worked at the concentration camp. 

It wasn’t immediately clear whether she would appeal.