German court upholds conviction of 99-year-old former Nazi camp secretary
Al JazeeraAUG 21 2024
A German court rejected the appeal of 99-year-old Irmgard Furchner for her role in the deaths of over 10K people as a secretary at the Nazi Stutthof concentration camp during World War II.
Furchner was originally tried in a juvenile court because she was 18 and 19 during the time that the crimes took place. Last month, her lawyers cast doubt on whether Furchner could be considered an accessory to the murders at the camp and whether she was truly aware of what was going on.
From June 1943 to Apr. 1945, Furchner took notes for and handled the correspondence of camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe.
While administrative employees like Furchner are less close to the crimes than high-ranking officials, they still knowingly participated in them. Providing administrative assistance to mass murder counts as serving as an accessory to mass murder. In her role, Furchner participated in work that led to the deaths of thousands of people. She should be held legally accountable for this.
It is ridiculous that someone who workeddid small administrative tasks at a desk like reading, writing, and sorting correspondencecorrespondences should be charged with the murder of thousands of prisoners. Furchner has long maintained that she was unaware of the murders that took place at the camp and had no contact with the prisoners. This elderly woman should not be punished for crimes she did not commit, just because she was a secretary as a teenager.