FILE PHOTO: Defendant Irmgard F., a former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp attends her trial in a courtroom in Itzehoe, Germany, October 26, 2021. Christian Charisius/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
BERLIN — A 97-year-old woman who worked as a Nazi concentration camp secretary was convicted on Tuesday for her role in the murder of thousands of people, German media reported, in what could be one of the country’s last trials for World War Two crimes.
The district court in the northern town of Itzehoe handed Irmgard Furchner a two-year suspended sentence for aiding and abetting the murder of more than 10,500 people, the NDR broadcaster reported.
The indictment had originally charged Furchner with aiding and abetting the murders of 11,412 people.
The court was not immediately available to confirm the ruling.
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 in court.
Furchner worked at the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943 and 1945.
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.
She was sentenced under juvenile law, owing to the fact that she was aged between 18 and 19 at the time of the crimes.