Irmgard Furchner, a former secretary and typist who worked for the commander of a Nazi concentration camp has been convicted of the complicity of the murders of more than 10,500 people between 1943 and 1945.
Irmgard Furchner, 97, was a teenage shorthand typist at Stutthof concentration camp in Northern Poland. She was a civilian worker, but authorities say she was fully aware of what was going on at the camp, according to the BBC.
She received a two-year suspended sentence, according to The New York Times.
More than 65,000 people, including 28,000 Jews died at Stutthof between 1939 and 1945. Others killed included non-Jewish Polish people and captured soldiers from the Soviet Union.
Irmgard Furchner, who was later given the nickname of “the secretary of evil” was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of 10,505 of those victims. She was also convicted of complicity in the attempted murder of five other victims.
During the trial, several people who had been inmates at the concentration camp testified of the deplorable conditions and the deaths that happened at Stutthof.
After World War II was over and Stutthof was closed down, Furchner married Heinz Furchtsam, a former SS squad leader who had worked under Hitler. He died in 1972, and she continued working as a secretary in the private sector.
As the trial began in September 2021, Furchner fled her retirement home. She was ultimately found by police on a street in Hamburg, Germany.
“I’m sorry about everything that happened,” Furchner told the court, according to the BBC. “I regret that I was in Stutthof at the time; that’s all I can say.”
But the judge, Dominik Gross, said during his ruling that it was “unimaginable” that Furchner would not have noticed the smoke from the furnaces and the smell of mass murders. Gross noted that Furchner was not required to work at the concentration camp. “The defendant could have quit at any time.” he said.