After being found guilty of complicity in the death of more than 10,500 prisoners locked at a Nazi concentration camp, a 97-year-old former secretary was given a two-year suspended sentence. Irmgard Furchner had worked as secretary to lieutenant colonel Paul Werner Hoppe at Stutthof Nazi concentration camp and worked there from 1943 to 1945.
Sorry For What Had Happened
In September 2021, she suddenly fled the scene, delaying the trial procedure. She was discovered by police hours later near Hamburg after failing to appear in court. She has been on trial for more than a year in northern Germany. She spoke to the court once earlier this month to express her sorry and regret for what had happened without accepting her role in the murders.
First Civilian Woman
Irmgard Furchner is the first civilian woman that have been held responsible for the war crimes committed by Nazi Germany. During her office tenure, more than 65,000 inmates died at the concentration camp including Jewish, non-Jewish Poles and captured Soviet prisoners.
