Nazi camp secretary found guilty : Three weeks following making an effort to leave the proceedings, the 96-year-old preceding chief of staff at the Nazi's concentrations camp is now being tried in Germany over allegedly participating in the death of more than 10500 prisoners there.
Irmgard Furchner, holding a brown suitcase and strapped into a blue ambulance wheelchair, was pushed into court at Itzehoe in northern Germany. A silk scarf hid her face with a design, sunglasses, and a face mask.
Nazi camp secretary found guilty
Furchner, who was 18 when she began working as Paul Werner Hoppe's assistant at the Stutthof camp near Nazi-occupied Poland, has been prosecuted in such a juvenile court because of her age at the moment, the illegal acts are committed.
She attempted to flee the trial during September by leaving the retirement community in Quickborn, wherein she resides, and taking a cab to the suburbs of Hamburg. She was apprehended a few hours later and detained by police for over five days until having an electronic wrist tag implanted.
She merely spoke to verify her name, residence, and status as a widow; otherwise, her attorney Wolfgang Molkentin claims she was unwilling to answer questions from the court.
She seemed to listen as the accusation was read out loud to the courtroom's packed audience as she watched. She sometimes wiped her face, gripped the electronic tags on her left wrist, and glared out the glass window that had been installed to prevent the coronavirus from infecting her.
"These procedures are of great historical importance," prosecutor Maxi Wantzen spoke during final arguments, according to German media outlet DPA.
The Stutthof camp was operated by the Nazis during World War II, according to accusations made by the prosecution against Ms. Furchner.
Between June 1943 through April 1945, she reportedly "aided and assisted those in command of a camp within methodical murdering of people imprisoned there within her job as a stenographer & typewriter in the camps commandant's office."
From her office, the defendants would have enjoyed a good view of much of the camp, such as the area wherein new detainees were received, according to Mr. Wantzen said Tuesday.
In a statement to the court, Molkentin claimed Irmgard Furchner disavowed efforts by far-right groups to herald her as just a hero & declared that, in contrast to some of her admirers, she was "not a Holocaust denier." But he claimed that she objected to being handled in the same manner as important figures who weren't longer there to bear responsibility for the offenses perpetrated.
Nazi camp secretary found guilty
"That wasn't essential from my vantage point to have an awareness of the mass killings," Mr. Wantzen stated, even if the accused did not personally enter the surrounded-by-walls camp.
The accusations made against Ms. Irmgard Furchner throughout the trial have yet to receive a response. The German legal system accepts no official guilty or just not guilty pleas.
Filming of the trial is now being done to preserve history. The magistrate, Dominik Groß, emphasized the significance of the unprecedented decision to permit the recording, referring to it as "1 of the last criminal trials relating to atrocities of the Nazi period" in his ruling.
Nazi camp secretary found guilty
Furchner has been the initial woman to face trial over crimes associated with the Nazis in many years. A 100 yrs old former warden of the concentration camp is now the subject of a new problem in Brandenburg.
Essential facts: Irmgard Furchner is being tried as a juvenile as she was under 21 years old during the Second World War; according to the prosecution, she could have seen large portions of the Stutthof detention camp from the window, as well as thousands of individuals, perished at Stutthof as well as its satellite camps.
Nazi camp secretary found guilty
Furchner, who was 18 when she began working as Paul Werner Hoppe's assistant at the Stutthof camp near Nazi-occupied Poland, has been prosecuted in such a juvenile court because of her age at the moment, the illegal acts are committed.
She attempted to flee the trial during September by leaving the retirement community in Quickborn, wherein she resides, and taking a cab to the suburbs of Hamburg. She was apprehended a few hours later and detained by police for over five days until having an electronic wrist tag implanted.
She merely spoke to verify her name, residence, and status as a widow; otherwise, her attorney Wolfgang Molkentin claims she was unwilling to answer questions from the court.
She seemed to listen as the accusation was read out loud to the courtroom's packed audience as she watched. She sometimes wiped her face, gripped the electronic tags on her left wrist, and glared out the glass window that had been installed to prevent the coronavirus from infecting her.
"These procedures are of great historical importance," prosecutor Maxi Wantzen spoke during final arguments, according to German media outlet DPA.
The Stutthof camp was operated by the Nazis during World War II, according to accusations made by the prosecution against Ms. Furchner.
Between June 1943 through April 1945, she reportedly "aided and assisted those in command of a camp within methodical murdering of people imprisoned there within her job as a stenographer & typewriter in the camps commandant's office."
From her office, the defendants would have enjoyed a good view of much of the camp, such as the area wherein new detainees were received, according to Mr. Wantzen said Tuesday.
In a statement to the court, Molkentin claimed Irmgard Furchner disavowed efforts by far-right groups to herald her as just a hero & declared that, in contrast to some of her admirers, she was "not a Holocaust denier." But he claimed that she objected to being handled in the same manner as important figures who weren't longer there to bear responsibility for the offenses perpetrated.
Nazi camp secretary found guilty
"That wasn't essential from my vantage point to have an awareness of the mass killings," Mr. Wantzen stated, even if the accused did not personally enter the surrounded-by-walls camp.
The accusations made against Ms. Irmgard Furchner throughout the trial have yet to receive a response. The German legal system accepts no official guilty or just not guilty pleas.
Filming of the trial is now being done to preserve history. The magistrate, Dominik Groß, emphasized the significance of the unprecedented decision to permit the recording, referring to it as "1 of the last criminal trials relating to atrocities of the Nazi period" in his ruling.
Nazi camp secretary found guilty
Furchner has been the initial woman to face trial over crimes associated with the Nazis in many years. A 100 yrs old former warden of the concentration camp is now the subject of a new problem in Brandenburg.
Essential facts: Irmgard Furchner is being tried as a juvenile as she was under 21 years old during the Second World War; according to the prosecution, she could have seen large portions of the Stutthof detention camp from the window, as well as thousands of individuals, perished at Stutthof as well as its satellite camps.
