As of: 09/30/2021 12:02 p.m.
The trial of a suspected Nazi perpetrator was due to begin at the regional court in Itzehoe today. But the accused could no longer be found, the court said.
The trial of a former concentration camp secretary in Itzehoe was supposed to start at 10 a.m. The 96-year-old has been charged with complicity in murder in more than 11,000 cases. But the woman did not appear for the trial. Officials wanted to pick up the defendant in the morning from her nursing home in Quickborn and bring her to the courtroom in Itzehoe. But the woman wasn’t there. According to the presiding judge Dominik Groß, the 96-year-old left the nursing home very early in the morning by taxi in the direction of the Norderstedt underground station. The judge of the youth chamber announced that the woman is now considered fugitive and that an arrest warrant has been issued.
How it will continue now is still unclear. The woman is wanted. She had worked as a typist in the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig from 1943 to 1945. At that time she was 18 and 19 years old, respectively. There the secretary in the headquarters is said to have known about what was going on in the camp. It is the first time that a civil employee should be negotiated. Because of the great interest in the process, the district court had moved the hearing to a hall of a logistics company in Itzehoe.
Auschwitz Committee: “Incredible contempt for the rule of law”
The International Auschwitz Committee has expressed outrage over the defendants’ flight. “This shows an incredible contempt for the rule of law and also for the survivors,” said Vice-Executive President Christoph Heubner.
You can follow the press conference on the first day of the trial around noon live on NDR.de/sh and in the NDR Schleswig-Holstein app.
additional Information
AUDIO: Trial of concentration camp secretary: defendant escapes from nursing home (1 min)
