Irmgard Furchner

Irmgard Furchner (born 1925) is a German woman known for having been a secretary and stenographer in the Stutthof concentration camp. She was charged in 2021 - at the age of 96 - with 11,412 counts of accessory to murder and 18 additional counts of accessory to attempted murder.[1][2][3]

Trial

Furchner's trial was held in a juvenile court in Itzehoe, as Furchner was only 18 years old at the time of the alleged offenses. She had announced in advance that she did not wish to appear in court and asked the judge not to expect her to do so; indicating in a letter that she would boycott her trial as "degrading". In a criminal trial, however, the presence of the accused is essential.[2]

At the end of September 2021, a few hours before the start of her trial, she left the Quickborn retirement home where she resided and took a cab to the Norderstedt Mitte subway station. The president of the criminal chamber subsequently issued a warrant for her arrest; Furchner was quickly captured and arrested.[4][5][6] Five days later, she was released from pretrial detention under conditions. The trial was postponed until 19 October 2021.[7][8]

References
  1. Connolly, Kate (19 October 2021). "Former Nazi camp secretary goes on trial over murders of 11,000 people". the Guardian. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  2. "Nazi Stutthof camp secretary flees as German trial starts". BBC News. 30 September 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  3. Jüttner, Julia (30 September 2021). "Itzehoe: Ehemalige KZ-Sekretärin vor Prozessbeginn geflohen". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  4. Connolly, Kate (30 September 2021). "Ex-Nazi concentration camp secretary, 96, caught after fleeing before trial". the Guardian. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  5. Bronst, Sebastian (19 October 2021). "Prosecution at trial of Nazi camp secretary: Gas chamber cries 'clearly audible'". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  6. Schuetze, Christopher F. (30 September 2021). "German Police Arrest 96-Year-Old Nazi Suspect Who Tried to Skip Court". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  7. Sommerlad, Joe (27 October 2021). "The 96-year-old alleged Nazi war criminal on trial in Germany". The Independent. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  8. Connolly, Kate (19 October 2021). "Former Nazi camp secretary who fled trial appears in court". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
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