the world
An appeal filed by the defense of Irmgard Furchner Rejected and the German woman will be reprimanded for being accused Accomplice More than 10,000 people died during the Nazi regime.
Christian Charisius
A former secretary at the Stutthof concentration camp, now 99, was upheld by Germany’s highest court on Tuesday for complicity in 10,505 murders as part of the Nazi regime’s plan to exterminate Jews.
A woman identified as Irmgard FurchnerThen between the ages of 18 and 19, he A Typist and secretary to the commander of Camp StutthoffPaul Werner Hope, center 1943 and 1945.
Itzehoe considered that the court had proved that, through his work, Irmgard Furchner helped organize the murder of the prisoners and sentenced him to two years in prison.Transferable by parole.
Furchner’s belief A civilian was the first to be accused of participating in the Holocaust.
The German Supreme Court rejected the appeal
His defense was a prelude The appeal, now dismissed by the Supreme Court, On the grounds that it is not clear or proven that he knew about what was going on in the camp, or that his work contributed to a planned killing operation.
However, the court considered it “The smell of corpses was everywhere”What is it for? “It is inconceivable that the accused did not realize”.
At Stutthof, near the present-day Polish city of Gdansk, 110,000 people were held between 1939 and 1945. About 65,000 people were killed.
The investigation has attracted attention for several reasons, including Advanced age of the accused And because it probably is One of the last trials of Nazi crimes.
They are present Three trials are underwayBut in two of them the courts considered the defendants Impossible to judge.
The delay in German justice has raised some doubts
The Furchner case revived the question of why It took a long time to go to the German courts Accomplices in crimes committed by National Socialism.
One 1969 Supreme Court Judgment – Some punishments related to the Holocaust have already been handed down – which made it difficult to punish perpetrators, who in certain cases had to prove complicity and a causal relationship between their actions and the crimes.
This led to Many cases were archivedAgainst the selection guards at the Auschwitz ramp (where people were selected upon arrival at the concentration camp).