Former Nazi camp secretary, 97, appeals conviction

A 97-year-old former Nazi camp secretary who was recently sentenced to two years in prison with a suspended sentence for aiding and abetting murder, a court in Itzehoe, Germany, has decided to appeal his conviction.

The federal court will investigate potential procedural deficiencies, a court spokesman said in a statement. Until analyzed, the judgment is “non-binding”. The spokesperson added that the representative of the civil party also made the request

In the last anti-Nazism trial in Germany, Irmgard Furchner was sentenced to two years in prison on the 20th with a “Sercis” (conditionally suspended sentence). He was accused of complicity in over 10,000 murders at the Stutthof concentration camp in present-day Poland. The former secretary was put on trial from September 2021.

The sentence followed a request by the prosecutor who highlighted the “exceptional historical significance” of the trial with an above all “symbolic” sentence.

Both of Irmgard’s attorneys asked for the case to be dismissed. According to them, the investigation did not show that she knew about the systematic killings in Stuthope. However, the court held that “the smell of corpses was everywhere” and “it is inconceivable that the accused was not aware of anything”.

Furchner said he “regrets everything that happened” and “regrets being at Stutthof at that time”.

At the time of the events the defendant, aged 18 and 19, worked as a typist and secretary for then camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe at Stutthof, a camp near Gdansk (then Danzig) with a population of 65,000. Died. Jewish, Polish and Soviet prisoners of war were systematically murdered.