Germany convicts 97-year-old woman of Nazi war crimes: media

By Reuters December 20, 2022 | 01:50 am PT

Irmgard Furchner, a 96-year-old former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, is pictured at the beginning of her trial in a courtroom, in Itzehoe, Germany, October 19, 2021. Photo by Reuters/Christian Charisius

A German court convicted a 97-year-old woman of having contributed to the murder of over 11,000 people during her time working as a typist at a Nazi concentration camp in World War Two, NDR broadcaster and other media reported on Tuesday.

The district court in the northern town of Itzehoe handed Irmgard Furchner a two-year suspended sentence, according to the report. She was sentenced under juvenile law, owing to the fact that she was only 18-years old at the time of the crimes.

She worked at the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943 and 1945.

The start of Furchner's trial was delayed in September 2021 when she briefly went on the run. She was caught hours after failing to turn up to court.

Some 65,000 people died of starvation and disease or in the gas chamber at Stutthof near Gdansk, in today's Poland. They included prisoners of war and Jews caught up in the Nazis' extermination campaign.