Furchner is accused of complicity in more than 11,000 murders at the Stakhov concentration camp in present-day Poland. Her trial began in September 2021
A former secretary to nazi concentration camp, aged 97 today, appeared contrite, speaking for the first time about the charges against her, at her trial in Itzehoe, northern Germany.
“I’m sorry for everything that happened. I regret being in the Staffhof at that time. That’s all I have to say,” said Irmgard Furchner.
The statements made by the defendant, who moves around with a wheelchair, were confirmed to AFP by her lawyer, Niklas Weber.
Furchner is accused of complicity in more of 11,000 concentration camp murders of Stathof, in present-day Poland. Her trial began in September 2021.
Today, her lawyers asked the court to acquit her as, they argue, the evidence presented does not conclusively show that the accused knew that people were being systematically exterminated in Stathof.
On November 22, the prosecution requested that the former secretary be given a two-year suspended prison sentence.
The court’s decision is expected to be announced on December 20.
The trial began episodically last September, as the accused… blew it on the same day. Instead of appearing in court, she took a taxi from her home and went to a nursing home. They found her there a few hours later.
At the age of 18-19, Fürchner worked as a typist and secretary to the camp commander, Paul Werner Hoppe and her position was “essential” about the inhumane system that prevailed in Stathof, according to prosecutor Maxie Vandsen.
At Stathof, near Gdansk, some 65,000 people were exterminated, mostly Jews, Polish resistance fighters and Soviet prisoners of war, according to historians.
RES-EMP
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