Worked as a Typist at a Concentration Camp
"I Am Sorry for Everything That Has Happened"
The last defendant to be tried for collaborating with the Nazis in Germany passed away in January.
On the 8th, Yonhap News reported, citing German media, that Irmgard Furchner, who was convicted of aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder, died at the age of 99 in January.
From June 1943 to April 1945, Furchner worked as the secretary and typist for Commander Paul Werner Hoppe at the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland).
German prosecutors viewed her as having assisted in the Nazis' systematic mass murder. She was charged with aiding and abetting 10,505 murders and 5 attempted murders. Records show that 110,000 people from 28 countries were imprisoned at Stutthof camp between 1939 and 1945, of whom 65,000 died.
The defendant was sentenced to two years probation in December 2022, and the sentence was finalized by the federal court in August last year. The court emphasized that she managed most of the documents related to camp operations, including orders for lethal gas and prisoner transfers. It also noted that the crematorium chimney was visible from her office, concluding that she could not have been unaware of the mass killings carried out by the Nazis.
The defense argued that the defendant, who was 18 to 20 years old at the time, had no intent to aid murder and acted 'neutrally' as she had in a bank job prior to the camp. However, in her final statement at the first trial, the defendant apologized, saying, "I am sorry for everything that has happened so far. I regret being at Stutthof. This is all I can say."
Furchner's trial was effectively the last criminal case against a Nazi collaborator. A 100-year-old former guard at Sachsenhausen concentration camp was indicted in 2023 for aiding and abetting 3,322 murders, but the court dismissed the charges last year considering his health condition.
Prosecutions of Nazi collaborators who did not directly participate in the killings have continued since the 2011 conviction of John Demjanjuk (1920?2012), a former concentration camp guard.
Demjanjuk, originally from Ukraine, was conscripted into the Soviet army and captured by the German army, after which he worked at a concentration camp. He claimed at trial that he had no choice as a prisoner of war and considered himself a victim of the Nazis. However, the court ruled that since he could have escaped, he was not obliged to follow Nazi orders.
There has been controversy over whether it is legally just to prosecute simple collaborators around 100 years old in court. However, when confirming Furchner's guilty verdict, the court stated, "It must be recognized that this is not a trial for revenge or retaliation. It is important to make the past transparent and contribute to German history."
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