Status: 12/20/2022 10:55 a.m
The Itzehoe district court has found a former secretary of the Stutthof concentration camp guilty of being an accessory to murder in more than 10,000 cases. She gets two years probation.
The district court in Itzehoe, Schleswig-Holstein, has sentenced a former secretary of the Nazi concentration camp (KZ) Stutthof near Gdansk to a youth sentence of two years’ imprisonment on probation.
Assisted in murder in more than 10,500 cases
The court found the now 97-year-old Irmgard F. guilty of aiding and abetting murder in more than 10,500 cases. According to the indictment, F. had worked as a shorthand typist for the commander of the Stutthof concentration camp from 1943 to 1945. She was between 18 and 19 years old at the time. Therefore, the proceedings against her took place before a juvenile chamber. This followed the request of the public prosecutor’s office with its verdict.
Defense attorneys had asked for an acquittal
The two defense attorneys, on the other hand, had demanded an acquittal for their client. They justified this by saying that it could not be proven beyond a doubt that F. knew about the systematic killings in the camp.
The 97-year-old had said in her so-called last word: “I’m sorry for everything that happened. I regret that I was in Stutthof at the time. That’s all I can say.”
Process started in 2021
The process began on September 30, 2021. During the 40 days of the hearing, the court heard eight of the 31 joint plaintiffs as witnesses. The survivors of the camp reported on the suffering and mass deaths in Stutthof.
The most important witness, however, was the historical expert Stefan Hördler, who presented his report in 14 sessions. The defense had filed a motion for bias against him, which the court rejected.
The accused did not want to face the proceedings
The defendant initially did not want to face the proceedings. On the first day of the trial, she disappeared early in the morning from her retirement home in Quickborn (Pinneberg district). Hours later, the police picked her up on a street in Hamburg. The court issued an arrest warrant. The then 96-year-old spent five days in custody.
More than 65,000 dead in Stutthof concentration camp
In the Stutthof camp near Danzig, the SS held more than 100,000 people under appalling conditions during World War II, many of them Jews. According to historians, about 65,000 died.
The camp was notorious for deliberately under-supplying the prisoners. Most people died of disease, exhaustion and abuse. However, there was also a gas chamber and a shot in the neck.