Germany Upholds Conviction of Former Nazi Secretary
A German court has rejected the appeal of 99-year-old Irmgard Furchner for her role in the deaths of over 10K people as a secretary at the Nazi Stutthof concentration camp during World War II....
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Facts
- A German court has rejected the appeal of 99-year-old Irmgard Furchner for her role in the deaths of over 10K people as a secretary at the Nazi Stutthof concentration camp during World War II.[1]
- Last month, lawyers for Furchner — originally tried in a juvenile court because she was 18 and 19 during the time that the crimes took place — challenged whether Furchner was truly conscious of what was going on at the camp.[2]
- From June 1943 to Apr. 1945, Furchner took notes for and handled the correspondence of camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe.[3]
- In December 2022, she was given a two-year suspended sentence for her role in what prosecutors called the 'cruel and malicious murder' of the prisoners at the camp, with presiding judge Dominik Gross saying that 'nothing that happened at Stutthof was kept from her.'[3]
- Following her sentencing, lawyers for Furchner filed an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice. On Tuesday, however, the higher court rejected the appeal with presiding judge Gabriele Cirener saying 'the conviction of the defendant...is final.'[4]
- The trial is considered by many to be one of the last of its kind, as many of those involved in the Nazis' crimes have either died or are now unfit to stand trial due to their old age.[5]
Sources: [1]Guardian, [2]Al Jazeera, [3]Le Monde.fr, [4]Dw.Com and [5]POLITICO.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by POLITICO. While administrative employees like Furchner are less close to the crimes than high-ranking officials, they still knowingly participated in them. In this case, providing administrative assistance to mass murder counts as serving as an accessory to mass murder, and Furchner must be held responsible. This latest ruling is evidence that Germany's justice system is working as it should.
- Narrative B, as provided by Timesofisrael. These types of trials are important to keeping the tragedy of the Holocaust in our collective memories — but they are few and far between. The number of guilty individuals taken before German courts is merely a drop in the bucket of people who committed atrocities on behalf of the Nazi regime. It's time to consider alternative and equally promising ways of dealing with unresolved Holocaust crimes.
